Junior Vivian Vreeman spends her Saturday mornings surrounded by birds, snakes and African tortoises. It’s been this way since June, when she first got her job as a junior naturalist at Cool Creek Park and Nature Center in Carmel. Vreeman said she recognizes how unique her job is, and she’s happy to have it.

“(My job is unique) because it’s a nature center, and not a lot of people work there. It’s unique in a way of working with the animals, especially because most kids my age work service industry jobs and stuff like that,” Vreeman said. “But I’m working for the government, at a government park. And I’m taking care of animals and bringing in animals that people don’t want anymore.”

Ever since a low point in 2020, in the midst of Covid – 19, the number of employed teenagers has been steadily rising. Walden University, accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, recently reported that nearly 30% of high school students work a part-time job during a portion of the school year. What’s not reflected in those numbers are the growing numbers of students like Vreeman who have unorthodox jobs that reflect their passions.

CHS offers a capstone program in which students spend some of their school days working as paid interns. Richard Reid, the work-based learning coordinator who mandates the capstone project, said he thinks highly of students working unconventional jobs, especially those of whom have aspirations of working in those fields.

“I think (students working in high school) is fantastic,” Reid said. “Especially in our capstone programs, students are working towards something that they want to do in the future. So they’re pursuing a capstone for four years, it’s kind of like choosing a college major and getting a preview of what (a real job) is going to be like. For a lot of kids, they’re learning, ‘This is what I want to do in life.’”

Vreeman said her job is a good reflection of what she wants to do in the future. 

“Honestly, I’m (into) working with kids part (of my job at the nature center), and teaching children, because I like seeing the world from a child’s perspective and getting to see a different side of people,” Vreeman said. “Because you don’t see that in adults. You don’t get to work with adults the way you work with children.”

Brennan Curry, Sub Zero employee and junior, said he enjoys the odd aspects of his job, such as making ice cream using liquid nitrogen right in front of his customers.

“We freeze the ice cream in nitrogen and it’s pretty cold, and it can burn you sometimes, but it’s worth it because it tastes really good,” Curry said. “Most ice cream places don’t freeze (the ice cream) right in front of the customers, so I’d say that’s a pretty big selling point for (my job)… everything’s kind of raw and authentic.”

But not all employment choices come from a place of passion. Even though Curry said he likes working at Sub Zero, he chose his unconventional job because of convenience.

“Basically, I live really close to Midtown, and I wanted (a job) I could walk to because at the time I didn’t have my license,” Curry said. “And it felt like a really nice and easy kind of job.”

Some students lack passion when it comes to the work they do, but for those like Vreeman, a job in high school can be a way to channel passion and an antecedent to the work they want to do after finishing school.

“Being a person that can teach children about the environment is (amazing),” Vreeman said. “Because the future is the kids. And if we’re teaching kids how to be safe with the environment and how to take care of animals in the environment, we’re teaching kids the right thing.”