This is our last interview in the Student Employment Office story series!
Remi Gosselin is the last student we're featuring, and she spent some time telling us about her favorite parts of her work experience on campus. Here’s the transcription from our interview!
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Amy Zhao: Let’s just start with a general Harvard introduction and then can you tell me a little more about what you do for your job?
Remi Gosselin: Sure! So general Harvard introduction - my name is Remi and I’m a senior living in Pfoho and I study Environmental Science and Public Policy. And I have two main jobs on campus. One job is through the Resource Efficiency Program, in which I’m a captain of four upperclassmen house reps - it’s basically a peer-to-peer sustainability education job that hosts events like study breaks and teaches other students about sustainability on campus.
My other job is being a Learning Lab Undergraduate Fellow (LLUF) at the Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, which is basically like, we’re kind of like beta testers for homework assignments and curriculum. It’s particularly for GenEd - professors will come in and say like, “I want to do this type of project, but I want to get the kids to get this out of it.” We’ll just do the assignment and try to make it better by making it more interactive and more fun for the students.
AZ: Interesting! I’m curious to hear more about how you got into either of your jobs - can you tell me a little more about that?
RG: Yeah so being an environmental scientist, I’m a huge sustainability nerd. During orientation week for freshmen, there’s something called the Green Tour that the Office of Sustainability actually runs, and that’s how I met Kelsey, who was the coordinator at the time for the REP position. So they have 3 freshmen REP positions, and by going on this tour, I met her, and I talked to her about it. And I looked up all the sustainability stuff online before because I wanted to know which schools were sustainable and make my decision based off that - oh cool! - so I kind of already knew that this job existed before coming here. I applied and ended up getting the job freshmen year, so I actually have been with the OFS for all four years that I’ve been here.
AZ: So you got in early! That’s awesome. Did they talk about how the school uses energy on the Green Tour?
RG: Yeah! They walked us through the Yard and they explained how on Canaday, there’s a solar-panel powered water heater, so that the Canaday water is heated on the roof. And they’ll say like LEED, the efficiency building thing, Thayer is LEED silver. Like Northwest Labs now has solar panels all on top of its roof and certain bio buildings too. So the tour was mostly to show how advanced we are compared to other schools.
AZ: So that’s how you heard about your REP position… What about your position at the Bok Center?
RG: I joined that one, like my junior year spring, when I heard about it through my OEB 10 teaching fellow, who was a graduate student fellow, since the Bok Center has both graduate and undergraduate student fellows. Between her and my friend Molly who is a undergraduate fellow, this position seemed like it was perfect for anyone interested in science education, photography, videography, and animation, and how to incorporate science into a widely consumable format. After talking to the two of them about that, both told me that I should work for the Bok Center because this job is one that can help me do those exact things.
AZ: Wow, I guess that those two recommendations really meant that they thought this job would be a good fit for you.
RG: The whole point of the Bok Center is really about education and trying to make it more accessible, and for science in particular, the education component has been really interesting to me.
AZ: So there’s a pretty heavy overlap between your two jobs on campus!
RG: Yeah, I’m definitely interested in sustainability education and just trying to take more dense topics and making them more palatable is the idea. The Bok Center is more through visual media, whereas REP is more like through study breaks and talking to people in person. They’re both very education-based.
AZ: What’s the time commitment for both and how do you manage it? It seems like having two jobs can get kind of crazy!
RG: What’s nice is that both have pretty chill time commitments. Being a captain for the Resource Efficiency Program, I have a slightly lower time commitment because I’m not the one actually running the study breaks - I’m just in charge of the people running the study breaks. AH delegation! So I’m basically just making sure that they get things done on time, and that if they need help, I’m there to help them, but I probably have 3 - 4 hours a week of work, which is really not too much.
And the Bok Center is really chill because you can actually sign up according to your schedule. They used to have a 4 hour minimum work shift, but now they have enough LLUF’s, you can just work whenever you want. There’s no time restrictions, only that you have work Mondays to Fridays from 9 AM - 5 PM. But during my thesis, I did not work at all - I messaged the manager and told her that I’m not going to see you until after spring break. And she said that it was so valid and that I was fine.
AZ: I think that’s important though - even my boss tells me that I’m a student first and an employee afterwards, so that has been really helpful to balance a schedule.
RG: But now after my thesis, I’ve been working like 6 - 7 hours a week, and it’s really a great job and I enjoy going to my job.
AZ: That’s the best when you enjoy your job and it’s not really work - you’re just getting paid for something you enjoy doing.
RG: I’m literally having a great time just sitting there and learning and getting paid for it - it’s amazing.
AZ: Are there other aspects in general about student employment, so maybe a little more broadly than having specific technical skills that you require, that have impacted your college experience?
RG: I guess it depends on the job, but more broadly, having a job on campus, it’s kind of nice because it helps you learn how to manage your time a little better so it’s a good time management tool, and it’s a good way to meet people on your job that you wouldn’t have met otherwise, it’s good making connections, making friends, and managing time.
