Student Employment Spotlight

Language Tables Head Waiter, Ricardo Martini '16

Ricardo Martini, is a language table super-star. He started working as a humble Italian waiter during the J-term of last year, and after just one semester, was chosen to be a head waiter this past fall. Martini  says the position of Head Waiter is more than being a “glorified bus boy” in the dining room. “Behind the scenes, you have to clean the space, you have to mop, wipe down counters, grab the bread and salad, make sure everything’s there, the dishes are there, the utensils. At the end of the day, it’s under your belt that everything goes smoothly.” When hiring new waiters/waitresses, Martini said he looks for applicants who are “patient and attentive and will actually put in an effort into translating the menu; that’s why google translate and word reference exist!”
Martini  also pointed out a key difference in shifting roles from a waiter to a head waiter. “You have more creative freedom as a waiter than as a head waiter where you have to act more like a responsible manager.” He recalled, “One time [as a waiter], I wore a suit and I was part of the Italian Mafia serving them the food.” However, Martini’s favorite memory as a language table waiter was serving special birthday treats to tables accompanied by a hearty performance of “Buon Compleano!”
“One thing I like to do with language tables is make people feel important,” Martini said. “They’re not just students sitting down [for a meal]; they’re key members of the culture they’re sitting at. I truly believe your mind changes based on the language you speak. Different cultures influence your thoughts and that’s something great that can happen in a place like Ross Dining.” Martini  is now being promoted to the co-manager position alongside senior veterans, like Cameron McKinney ’14 and Niko Lambert ’14.

Usher, Jiaya Zhu '14

“This is a really good time to be thinking about becoming an usher,” Jiayi Zhu said, “because half of the current staff is going to be gone by the end of this year, so we need people to be trained now.” There are few jobs on campus that make you look more professional than being an usher. The white-top-black-bottom classic attire exudes an air of professionalism. You have most probably by now seen an usher at work: they check your tickets and hand you a program at the door, lead you to your seat in the concert hall and do a whole host of other things that you never noticed. These include checking that all the exits are clear before an event begins, for example, and picking up the programs on the floor and in the seats after everyone has left. “Getting the job was quite straightforward,” Zhu said. “Shannon Bohler-Small [Arts Events Manager] did an informal interview with me and asked me where the toilets are and how to go from the CFA [Center for the Arts] to Old Chapel, for example.” You only need to have been trained for crowd management to be qualified for the job, since most things can be learnt on the job. “What I like about my job is that I get to go to the CFA for theatre performances, concerts and dance shows that I wouldn’t have gone to otherwise. It’s mostly our community members that make the most out of these opportunities,” she said.

Bike Shop Mechanic, Peter Peltzer '17

An avid mountain biker, Parker Peltzer spends many of his evenings at Middlebury Bike Shop teaching students how to repair their bikes or even construct new ones entirely from spare parts. Having worked in a bike shop throughout high school and during his most recent gap year, Peltzer first learned the craft of fixing bikes through reading books including Zinn & the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance and by watching repair videos online. “Fixing bikes has always been something that has felt familiar to me and remains something I enjoy,” Peltzer said. “What I love most about my job at the shop is how enthusiastic the students are about fixing their own bikes here. Students who come in are ready to put in hours working on their bikes.” Interestingly, Peltzer recalls that he first landed the job through a stroke of coincidence in a game of Nerf War. “I was at BiHall at midnight and one of the guys I was playing Nerf War with said he had to wake up early for the Tour de Farms, and that his bike was broken. I went and I fixed his bike and he happened to know who to talk to about a job opening at the bike shop.” When asked if he had any advice for future prospective bike shop teachers, Peltzer encouraged students to drop by the workshop and get to know the work, the space, and the other mechanics. “As long as their skills are ready to go, I’d say that the most important quality is the ability to teach and communicate with others.”

Lead Help Desk Computer Consultant, Anis Mebarki '15

Anis Mebarki’s rapper name at the Help Desk is A.M.—in part because of his initials and in part because he voluntarily takes the early morning shifts. He is “genuinely happy” to go to work each day. He greatly respects his boss, Joe Durante, who Mebarki feels is training the Help Desk employees for work in the real world. “It’s way more than a job,” Mebarki said; you get to learn, serve, and get paid. Mebarki has always enjoyed working with computers. Before coming to Middlebury he owned a Linux machine, an alternate operating system to Mac or PC which “iwas a full time job” but taught him a great deal about computer operations. When he arrived on campus in the fall of 2011, Mebarki saw an advertisement for positions at the Help Desk, applied, and was interviewed and selected for the job. Within that year, he worked his way up to become a lead computer consultant, which, coming from Algeria, felt like the American Dream to him. At the Middlebury Help Desk, if not everywhere in the US, Mebarki believes that hard work really pays off.

Gift Planning Assistant, Meghan Buckley '16.5

Maybe one of the farthest “on campus” jobs for students is the post of Office Assistant at the Gift Planning Office, which is located off campus in the Painter House, across the street from Middlebury Inn.
Every afternoon, Monday to Friday, Meghan Buckley, makes the hike from her room at Hepburn to her desk at the Painter House, home of Middlebury founder, Gamaliel Painter, where she begins her two hour shift of answering phones and calling alumni.
“Depending on the weather, it can be a fifteen to twenty minute walk. Most days, I make it there in about fifteen.”
Buckley, who landed the position after she saw a posting on the Student Employment webpage earlier this year, says she didn’t realize “there are so many people who work at the college behind the scenes, making everything work for us. They put in so many hours, so much of their time, and I had no idea.”
“The up is hearing about different alum’s experiences from their time here. It makes me really appreciate the time I have here and makes me want to make the most of it.”

Crossroads Marketing Director, Naila Jahan '15

The brilliance of the Princess Peach and All That Razz smoothies at Crossroads Cafe has finally been uncovered. Naila Jahan, Middlebury’s own vibrant Junior, has adopted the role of Marketing Director at our favorite student-run cafe. Illustrating the range of employment opportunities, Naila’s job is simple: to make Crossroads sexy. Responsible for utilizing social media to publicize the cafe, Naila also collaborates with other workers to create new drink flavors, as well as their corresponding clever names. Her proudest accomplishment has been independently designing a new Crossroads website in hope to attract more attention from students. Although it can be difficult when an executed idea does not find success, the ability to simply “get [her] creative juices flowing” is her favorite part of the job. How did she land this gig? Connections. After getting a job at the cashier her first year with the help of her neighbor that already worked there, Naila gradually moved up to her marketing director position. Now, as the café greets more and more popularity each year, it is exciting for Naila to simply see the growing waiting list of students who wish to even work at the youthful cafe.

Theater Set Maker, Lydia Delehanty '17

When Lydia Delehanty arrived at Middlebury she was an experienced performer and musician, but had no knowledge about theatre and the backstage work that goes into a production.  She saw a job posting for set construction on the student employment page and jumped at the chance to exercise her brain “in a way that classes don’t.”  She’s been building sets for Middlebury’s various theatre productions, most recently Pentecost, since late September and is happy to have a job “that’s active and actually requires thinking.”  Her main reservation about building sets?  “I get covered in dust a lot.  I end up leaving looking like I either have grey hair or really really bad dandruff.”  Despite the dust, Lydia plans to continue working set construction for the rest of the year.  As she told me, before the job “I couldn’t have actually gone and been like oh I can build this thing, but now I feel like I could do that.”

Admissions Office, Vladimir Kremenović '17

Vladimir Kremenović, a first-year from Bosnia and Herzegovina, has been working at the admissions office since his first week in college. Admissions is one of the most sought after gigs by student employees, and Kremenović made sure to get on the job three months before he even got to Middlebury; with his job interview taking place on his first day on campus. Now, he helps with filing and documentation at the Admissions headquarters in the Emma Willard house, occasionally answering emails and phone calls and answering questions for prospective students and their families. He stated that good communication, openness and “a good spirit” are key skills for a job at Admissions. The strangest part of working with Admissions, he says, are the amount of questions, some ridiculous, that come from parents rather than the prospective student themselves. Although he acknowledges that alphabetizing files can get tedious at times, he enjoys the job, especially interacting with and meeting new people, saying that his favorite part is being able to contribute to a prospective student’s decision in coming to Middlebury, that, as he puts it “might change their life.” His advice to novices searching for jobs is to contact the offices directly and as early as possible, instead of waiting for online postings.