Whether it’s paper delivering or working part-time in a fast food restaurant, employment among young people has been very popular in the past. However, today most teens, including Foothill students, are more focused on academics and extra curriculars than making extra money.

Senior Jaime Vandeveer wants to concentrate her time on her AP classes because she believes that it will help her in the long term.

“[I spend] from eight to eleven o’clock doing homework for my AP classes,” Vandeveer said. ” I would rather do well in my AP classes and go to a nice college and get a good job instead of working for seven dollars an hour at McDonald’s.”

Extracurriculars also take up students’ time outside of school.

Senior Sandy Liang admits that her Bioscience class takes up a lot of her time as it requires a lot of work outside of class. Liang calculates that she spends 45 hours per week doing work for Bioscience.

“Bioscience is a lot of work,” Liang said. ‘There are a lot of lab write-ups and pre-lab procedures that we have to do. It depends on the workload, but I usually spend two hours per day.”

Besides AP classes and extracurriculars, another reason why students are not employed is because their parents do not encourage them to find a job.

“My parents don’t encourage me to work because they want me to focus on my education,” senior Daisy Castaneda said. “They want me to work hard in school.”

Also, parents note that most colleges and universities will see more value in their child’s extracurriculars and community service rather than paying jobs.

“My parents believe that colleges will be impressed with my schoolwork, not a job,” Castaneda said.

With more students aiming for higher education and big goals, along with determined parents, it is unlikely that teen employment will grow in the near future.