Students explore many unique jobs on campus

Each fall, numerous Middlebury students search for work on campus.  The College offers a variety of positions, each with  advantages and disadvantages. Some have flexible hours but are especially taxing; others allow for interactions with interesting people but require waking up in the early morning or working on Saturday nights.

The recycling center allows students to visit and take things from their reused and clothing trailers.Domas Girtavicius ’11 has worked at the recycling center for several years.

At the recycling center, Girtavicius never knows what the hours after he clocks in will entail. After being trained, he can walk down the hill to the center whenever he has time and sift through the waste generated by the College. Sometimes he will be told to organize the reuse trailer, a veritable treasure trove of discarded holiday decorations, unwanted kitchenware and other misfit toys. Oftentimes however, a recycling center worker will sift through garbage bags and separate paper, plastics, glass and trash into designated receptacles. They then spend an hour or two throwing away half eaten apples and marveling at the number of solo cups used by college students.

In the past month Girtavicius has noticed an unprecedented number of students visiting the reuse trailer.

“This year more and more people are coming into the recycling center to look for stuff,”  said. “Some people look for things to decorate their apartments with; some people go for academic stuff”.
Since they spend time so much time sorting through the college’s waste, recycling center workers often find interesting objects. The common room in Girtavicius’s suite now warehouses numerous items found during hours spent at the recycling center including artwork, movie reels and a hat covered in glitter.  Other student workers have taken sweaters, lamps and disco balls back to their dorm rooms.

In addition to his job at the recycling center, Girtavicius is a server at the Chinese Language tables and works for the Center for Campus Activities and Leadership (CCAL) doing sounds and lights for various events. He likes each job for different reasons.

“I like working at the language tables for dealing with people” he said. “You get to chat with the students and see how their language is progressing.”

He also enjoys spending time with the other waiters. In part he said, “because they all went to different places and they all have great stories to tell.”

His job at the Grille allows Girtavicius to work with many of the smaller musical acts that have come to Middlebury.

“You get to see a lot of concerts and talk to musicians and see the kind of people they are,” said Girtavicius.

James Landenberger ’11 also works for CCAL as a sound technician and is a regular feature at the Grille’s Thursday pub nights. He sits by a soundboard at the foot of the stage and mixes the bands that perform. Landenberger had some experience with mixing bands in high school but has learned a lot from the hours he works at Middlebury.  When Middlebury alumn Philip Hamilton ‘82 performed at the College, Landenberger discovered that assisting a cappella groups could be especially challenging.

“Every singer has a different role to play. There is the beat box guy and the tenors,” he said.  “That was interesting because I had never paid attention to vocals that much.”

Since Middlebury hired him, Landenberger has spent numerous nights mixing bands.  He has even worked at Middlebury during the summers and helped put on numerous Language School events.

“They have a lot of lectures and screenings, but the most fun events are the talent shows,” he said. “It’s interesting to be around a lot of people speaking Chinese and have no idea what they are saying.”

Two days a week Marilyn Mead ’11 wakes up especially early and works at the Proctor bakery from 6 to 10 a.m. Together with three college staff members,  she measures out ingredients by the pound and bakes many of the cakes, breads and pastries found in Middlebury’s di ning halls.  Mead is occasionally consulted on the menu.

“Last week my boss was deciding between making flan and crème brulee and he asked me which one we should bake”, she said. She chose crème brulee since she was excited to use a torch to melt the desert’s sugary surface.

Mead does not mind the early hours she spends at the Proctor bakery.

“I actually really like that it is in the morning”, she said. “It’s a four-hour shift but it doesn’t feel like it takes up that much of my day.”

She enjoys spending time with the Proctor bakery staff and feels that time spent with these adults has afforded her a good perspective on life at Middlebury.

“Being around college students can be stressful sometimes,” she said.  “It’s nice to just go in there and find that my co-workers have completely different problems than I do.”

Many of the student workers enjoy the connections they make with members of the Middlebury staff.

“You meet a lot of people who eventually help you in some ways,” said Girtavicius. “It’s interesting to meet people who are not involved in academics — to see what they are doing and what their lives are like, to see what living in Middlebury actually means.”