Looking For a Job? Check out Mathnasium!

 By Kavya Kamath

Summer of 2020, I got a job at the Sparta Mathnasium. To be completely honest, I wasn’t looking anywhere specifically, I just felt the need to do something with my summer; quarantine had left me restless and not wanting to stay stuck inside my house for another couple months. So, I sent out emails to bookstores, theatres, certain wellness institutions, and, through recommendation of a friend, the Sparta Mathnasium. My boss, Mrs. Mary Muller, was one of maybe three people to respond—I was, after all, an unqualified high schooler with no previous work experience—but I can’t tell you how thankful I am that she took that chance on me.

Don’t get me wrong, interviewing wasn’t easy, training for four hours a day wasn’t easy, working with coworkers triple my age wasn’t easy, learning how to connect with kids from kindergarten to 12th grade wasn’t easy, but working at Mathnasium has by far been one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done with my life. Yes, I work on evenings and yes that sometimes means I have to stay up until midnight to finish my homework. Yes, I work on Saturdays and yes that always means waking up bright and early on a day I’m ‘supposed’ to be sleeping in. However, working has given me a purpose, something to do outside of and unrelated to Sparta High School. It’s popped a bubble of self-involvement, complacency, and routine that tends to surround us when we make school the center of our lives.

More personally, working at Mathnasium has strengthened both my love of math and kindled in me a love of teaching. Earning real wages, paying the bills of certain ‘extras’ that I want, being responsible to a boss and customers for quality work for the sake of the work (not for a grade)—it’s all changed my perspective on what I want to do once I get out of high school.

Since high school will be over in a mere four years, learning about yourself now, so you know what you want to do in college, is one of the best personal investments you can make.

And that’s part of the beauty of the job; I see it as a personal investment, something where there’s as much meaning and involvement as I want there to be.

I really really like my job. But to another highschooler, this might be so they can afford car insurance, maybe to another it’s to support their family, maybe to another it’s something their parents made them do, maybe to another it’s something to do with their free time, maybe to another it’s for work experience, and maybe to yet one more it’s for their college résumé. As teenagers, we have the freedom to choose how much our work experiences affect us, and we can choose how much they mean to us. Working at Mathnasium, and even working in general, is exactly what you choose to make of it.

So, I implore you, if you’re any one of the above students I just described, work at Sparta’s Mathnasium. At the most it’ll change your perspective on life (which admittedly doesn’t take much at 14-18 years old), and at the least it’s a source of income on the side. You can contact me, Kavya Kamath, at kamathk@students.sparta.org if you want more information, or go to the Mathnasium website: https://www.mathnasium.com/sparta. And please feel free to reach out.

Like Thomas Edison said, “Most people miss opportunity because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” I’m looking forward to us being coworkers, and I’m looking forward to you experiencing what it’s like to see a 4th grader’s eyes light up with mathematical understanding. It’s profound, I promise.