St. Charles High has over 800+ students, and 94+ staff members. About half the students at High have either jobs and/or after school activities they participate in. 

“I play basketball and I work at a nursing home,” junior Elijah Leach said. 

Students are juggling school, their work and their clubs/sports almost every day. Leach said he manages school, basketball and the nursing home in a hard process with barely any sleep. His dream job is to be a professional basketball player therefore more stress to come in his future. 

“I am not in any sports/clubs, but I do work at Fratelli’s and side jobs with my dad,” junior Colten Steiner said. “The side jobs with my dad are hard on the body and I do like juggling all of the work because of the money.”

Steiner works on construction with his dad when he has the time after his main job, Fratelli’s. Having to go to school and work and even after school activities is very draining on students. 

Scientists have been studying how work and school affect each other. They have concluded that, “Overworked high school students often come to school tired, miss out on after-school help sessions and forgo extracurricular activities. Some psychologists believe students who work too many hours may suffer far more dire consequences than a few missed classes or a couple of bad grades.”

Many experiments have been concluded and it proves that working and going to school is very hard on students.

“2011 study, Monahan, Lee, and Steinberg found that students who worked more than 20 hours per week were less engaged in school and had increases in problem behavior.”

Not only does school and work affect students academically but also mentally. Students have been known to use drugs and alcohol to help the stress. 

“Social Research between 1991 and 2010, findings indicated that students who worked more than 15 hours a week began to see adverse academic effects. According to lead author Jerald Bachman, these students not only had poorer grades, but they also used alcohol, cigarettes and drugs at a higher rate than their less-employed peers.”

Some students don’t have cars or ways of transport to all of their activities therefore is it more stressful on the brain and draining on the body. 

“I do school work on my break at work, and if I don’t have work then after wrestling practice,” junior Heather Simon said. “I work my butt off doing homework, practice and work if it’s all in the same day.”

Simon works at a local grocery store and is also in wrestling. She said that juggling all of the work is very difficult but she’s finding ways to make it easier on herself. Simon also happens to not have a ride to work most of the time therefore she walks from school to work to school to home.