(THE PICKET)—After pulling an all-nighter working on a paper, students can rest-assured that they’ll be greeted with a smile to go along with their morning coffee. Every faculty member at Shepherd University has their own story, their own aspirations—fulfilled or otherwise—and their own words of wisdom for anyone willing to listen to them. Carolyn Rushizky is one such individual.
Rushizky is a food service assistant at the Dining Hall at Shepherd. She says the best aspect of her job is interacting with the students and “building rapport with them.”
As for the hardest part of her job, she said, “at times, when we’re short-staffed, that can be challenging.”
Although she’s worked in the food service industry for most of her life, she also remembers her time working as a ranger at Yellowstone National Park. If she hadn’t started working in the food service industry, she said she would likely have continued working with the park service.
Rushizky’s favorite subject in school was English. She went to college years ago, but never finished—a regret she said she’s currently working to resolve.
“Part of the benefit of working at Shepherd,” she said, “is you get six credits per semester for free.”
She wants to attain either a business or regent’s degree.
Her advice to young people is to follow their passions and stay in school even if it’s hard; once you leave school and start making money, then it’s that much harder to go back, she said.
She also said that travelling abroad is one of the greatest benefits to one’s education. Rushizky travelled widely in her youth, backpacking for five months through Europe, and she counts France as one of her favorite countries.
Besides travel, she suggests working at a national park if possible, having worked at the Old Faithful Inn when she was younger where she got the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors while meeting people from all over the world.
Though she bemoaned “sounding like (her) parents” when asked if she has any criticisms of the current generation, or youth in general, Rushizky said that a strong work ethic is valuable in whatever you do.
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