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IT'S EASY to get a
job as a Stanford student. You can hash in Wilbur or shelve
books in Green. The hours are flexible, the pay's usually
decent (starting at $8.75 an hour) and the commute is a
breeze. But what if you want to do something a little
different -- explore an intellectual interest, develop some
VIP connections or spend a lot of time outdoors? With those
criteria in mind, we set out to identify the seven best
student jobs at Stanford.
Some were obvious winners, like riding a mountain bike
around Jasper Ridge, matching up freshman roommates and
romping with 6-year-olds on the shores of Fallen Leaf Lake.
Others took some investigating, but we managed to find a
student whose job carries heavy financial responsibility,
another who meets famous people at work, two students with
an inside look at Stanford's winning sports program, and one
who integrates academic interests into his work. These jobs
aren't always glamorous, and they don't necessarily pay
well, if at all. But those of us who tracked them down --
recalling our own student stints as hashers, ushers, clerks
and driving instructors -- admit it: we're jealous.
Matchmaker, Matchmaker
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 Joe
Narens, '02
job freshman roommate assignment
coordinator
pay $12 per hour plus rent-free summer
housing on campus
I'll never forget the girl who called for
reassurance about living in a four-class house.
After we talked, she told me she loved me.
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Freshman No. 1 is a football player from
Delaware who likes loud music and stays up late.
Housekeeping isn't his strength, but you wouldn't
call him a slob. Freshman No. 2: a South American
artist who enjoys listening to Aerosmith and
debating politics long into the night. He makes his
bed nearly every day.
A good match? The person who put them together
thinks so.
Joe Narens spent last summer pairing off
freshmen. As junior coordinator for the New
Undergraduate Student Information Project, he
hunted for auspicious matches among the 1,758
"preference forms" that recently accepted students
fill out.
Narens, an industrial engineering major, is a
little awed by the impact of his decisions. "It's a
good feeling, but it's also a lot of
responsibility," he says. "To some extent, you're
controlling the fate of the freshmen and who their
friends will be for the next four years."
He sorted the forms last summer with senior
coordinator Chris Walton, '99. (Narens is now the
senior coordinator.) First, they set aside students
requesting ethnic theme houses or special programs
like Freshman/Sophomore College, whose assignments
are handled separately. Next, the forms were
computer-processed to sort students into dorms.
Then the real work began as Narens and Walton went
through each dorm pile, mixing and matching
individuals. Their starting point: aim to match
students from different ethnic groups and
geographic regions (although there are so many
Californians that some inevitably room together).
From there, Narens says, roommate compatibility
often comes down to simple things like bedtimes,
noise tolerance and relative neatness. "The idea is
that you put together people who are different in
background but similar in many of their living
habits," he explains.
During the school year, he got a lot of
questions from roommates who were mystified by what
could have brought them together. One prevalent
theory: "Everyone seems to be matched with someone
who likes the same music," observes Samantha Crow,
a freshman in Donner House. Music is definitely a
factor, Narens says, but in cases where many
students share similar living habits, decisions
hinge on the form's final question, an open-ended
request for likes, dislikes and quirks. This is
where things get interesting. "Someone told us they
drool, and someone put down they like to sleep
naked," he confides.
For Narens himself, the system succeeded. He and
his freshman roommate got along so well that they
now joke about starting a business together in
Silicon Valley. "He's [East] Indian, from
Wayne, New Jersey; I'm Jewish, from Canton, Ohio,"
says Narens. "Right there, there's a lot of
diversity in the room. But we have similar music
tastes, similar habits, both go to bed at
relatively reasonable hours. That's the system for
most people, and it definitely worked for us."
-- Irene Noguchi, '02
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Power Ranger
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 Zoë
Bradbury, '01
job ranger and docent, Jasper Ridge
Biological Preserve
pay $12 per hour
I'll never forget seeing the raw power of
nature when the dam flooded and plumes of water
shot 20 feet into the air.
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If there's a gate unlocked, a trespasser
roaming, a trail littered or a mountain lion on the
prowl, Zoë Bradbury will find it. Known as
"the eyes and ears of the Ridge," Bradbury works at
Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, nearly 12,000
acres of protected open space in the Stanford
Foothills. She has full access to fragile lands
that others see only on guided tours.
As one of 10 rangers at Jasper Ridge, Bradbury
rides her mountain bike on 21 | |
