Juggling Books and Careers: Georgetown Students Strive for Stability and Success
By Shelby Meek
Georgetown graduates, as students and working professionals, must prioritize balance to prevent burnout and high levels of stress and excel in their academic and professional performance.
By creating that balance, it improves the mental and emotional well-being of students and allows them to maintain strong relationships and stay motivated to meet goals. Morgan Aspinwall ‘CCT’ 27, a communications assistant for the non-profit Greater Washington Partnership, first started creating a structured calendar and work schedule to meet her academic needs at Georgetown’s CCT program and her working professional needs.
“School work is often done on Monday afternoons or weekends for school,” Aspinwall said.
“I came to Georgetown with an understanding that it’ll take over my life, so I try to time manage, but I’m a person who can stay up until 2 am to do work.”
For Laura White, a graduate in the Learning, Design, and Technology program’ 26, and an on-campus worker as a Program Associate for the Apprenticeship in Teaching (AT) Program within Georgetown’s Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship, balancing school and work hasn’t been a major adjustment for her, but to keep up with her studies, she creates various to-do-lists that reflects how school work and work tasks needed to be completed.
“Having a list to follow instead of relying on my ability to remember the 100 little things I need to do every day helps decrease my cognitive load and lets me focus my time and attention on the most important things,” White said.
Being able to combine work and school into one’s daily life may require a lot of time management, but even with having a grasp of the skill, there is still a lot to learn and improve. For Aspinwall, she states that there are things she could prioritize better, such as gym days. However, she states that when the workload is lighter, she takes the opportunity to take some time to go explore Washington D.C. because she knows that there will be nights or days when she’ll be “living in the library and office.”
“Working and doing school is doable, but you need to know what you are comfortable with and make a schedule that can accommodate your schedule and work,” Aspinwall said.
For White, while working 20 hours a week, most of her classes occur in the late afternoon, while her Monday class goes from 11:00 am to 1:30 pm, but the class gives her a chance to step away from work for a few hours with no difficulty or conflicts.
Both Aspinwall and White stated that despite the combined workload, their programs at Georgetown have been nothing but supportive and accommodating to their schedules. Aspinwall stated that her cohort at CCT has been very kind and willing to provide advice on her journey through work and school. White’s program holds night classes or in the late afternoon in order to better accommodate students who work full- or part-time. She even takes advantage of the Writing Center, Career Center, and the library, which are fantastic free resources that offer one-on-one advice and help to students.
“My cohort, I feel, is really supportive and willing to provide advice and has been very kind, and we don’t have a program where we compete on who does the most,” Aspinwall said.
“I feel like my professors are very understanding of their students’ schedules, so they try to be considerate when assigning projects and homework,” White concluded.
Balancing school and work can be a challenge, but no student should underestimate their potential and abilities at Georgetown. If ever looking for an on-campus position or advice on how to go about doing an on-campus or off-campus job, HoyaWorks and the Financial Aid office are two resources that can help you begin looking into jobs on and off campus and provide information on various forms, such as the I-9, timesheets, and payroll.