Sierra Van Wijk ’25 (any pronouns)

Dining Assistant; Tour Guide; Resident Advisor; Office Assistant (Resource Center); Circulation Assistant (Science Library)

Throughout their time at Wesleyan, Sierra Van Wijk ’25 has become well-known for their work ethic and the many jobs they’ve held around campus. They work as a Resident Advisor in the Butterfields, an Office of Admission Tour Guide, a Resource Center Office Assistant, a Science Library Circulation Assistant, and a Bon Appetit Dining Assistant at Weshop, Usdan, and Summerfields. Sierra is a great example of an engaged student employee – although there is no pressure to hold as many jobs as them!


What advice would you give to students looking for a campus job?

My advice for students who are actively looking to get a job on campus is to make sure that you will be happy. The best part about the freedom of the Wesleyan job climate is the quick turnover and flexibility. If you need money or are even just looking for a great way to dedicate your time, it is still important to make sure you enjoy it in some capacity. There is no way I would have been able to take on the jobs and tackle the hurdles I did without a little part of me enjoying it. Make sure you are reading any employment contract you sign, understand the position before you sign on, and make sure your boss explicitly states their expectations to you on your first day. Advocate for yourself and see how happy you can be while doing the things you need to do. I know it sounds super corny, but set yourself up to be the happiest you can be, and the rest will figure itself out!

If I had to do this {work multiple jobs} without any stability surrounding me, I would have been in a very different position. If I had to drive to each of my jobs, I would have been in a very different position. There’s such a privilege {being able to} run from one shift to another shift. I would always advise students to try what they can, what is possible for them.
 
But prioritize {your college} experience while you can. If you are going to be working until 1:30 in the morning, sleep in until 12 pm so you can go out that night. If you’re gonna work multiple jobs, leave one day a week where you’re not doing any work. {After graduation}, it’s gonna slow down for me. I’m not going to be in school, involved in the other things I’m doing, I’ll just be working. I’ll have more time on my hands. {Right now} I’m fighting the battle of “Do I make more money now for ‘after school,’ or do I prioritize experiences before ‘after school’ comes.”
 
 

Do you have a specific memory from a campus job that you want to share?

Summies {Summerfields} takes such good care of me. They’ve taken care of me since I was a little baby at Wesleyan. I started working there at 17 and I’m 21 now. They are like a little family and they make me really happy and comfortable. One of my favorites {professional staff members}, Bree, just stepped up in so many ways to help me in my life. Like freshman year, for some reason, my mom said, “You know that fridge and microwave I bought? You’re not allowed to bring it home. You have to store it up at school. I don’t care how you do it, I’m not gonna give you money for it. You just can’t bring it home.” I had no idea what to do, and I was just barely making tuition freshman year working 20 hours a week, so I came to Bree crying. And she was like “Sierra this is an easy question. I thought you were coming over here to ask if I could loan you $200. That’s all I have in my wallet right now, and I would have given it to you if you needed it.”

And that helped me with the mental reallocation of what I could and couldn’t ask people. And how it’s okay to ask for help and not feel crazy. And specifically Bree, I call her my fairy godmother. She calls me princess. Like, they all call me the princess of Summies.

 

Do you have any other shoutouts that you want to give to supervisors or coworkers?

I want to shout out Joao {from Bon Appetit} and Demetrius {from the Resource Center} because it’s really rare that you get a boss who, while having a conversation with them, you forget that they’re your boss because they treat you as a human being rather than an employee.

Since I started working for Joao my freshman year I knew that I could trust him and that he could trust me. I have a habitual issue of running late, but I am the longest-running student employee within Summerfields. He trusts me to do my job and possibly pick up the slack to help him out when he needs it, and I can always count on him to hear me out and give me a chance. His employees and their care and love for me as well is a testament to how he treats them with kindness and strives to understand them even at their craziest. As for Demetrius, I have not worked for him for nearly as long, but I have known his name and face since the moment I arrived at Wesleyan. As one of the major leads on FGLI {first-generation/limited-income} programming on campus, he was one of the first people who welcomed me here. He looked out for me from before I was even one of his employees and still does to this day. Some of the conversations I’ve had with Demetrius have helped me feel so much more morally sound and helped me realize who I am as a person. And you can’t just expect that from any boss. I have worked under so many bosses and while they all have impacted my life in some way, these two will hold a dear place for a very long time.

 

How do you feel you have grown in these positions? What kind of skills have you gained in these roles, and how have they transferred over to your academic and professional career?

{Working at Bon Appetit} helped me work in any future food industry… My jobs also helped me develop all my social skills. It’s just all about interacting with people. Interaction after interaction. Sometimes, I don’t even think I’m talking when I’m talking. I’m just on autopilot, and it just happens… ResLife just keeps you on your toes. Conflict resolution.

I can handle almost anything now, man… The basis of so much of the RA {Resident Advisor} stuff is navigating a situation even though it may make you uncomfortable. Even if that makes them {your residents} uncomfortable, it’s the same with jobs too. If you are uncomfortable with giving a tour, then you are making your coworker do it. If you are uncomfortable setting things up in SciLi {Science Library}, now the next person has to do it.

I’m {also} trying to make connections for my career. The plan right now is to not work on my career right after graduation but continue to build up my savings. I’m doing a really good job here {at Wesleyan}. I want to actually plan this {post-graduation life} carefully. But there are so many other things I could do. I could go into teaching drama for kids at schools; I could be a guidance counselor at schools. There are so many things I could do with my degree. But my experience with on-campus jobs speaks for itself, and that was the entire point. And that was why I have three majors, I just wanted three of them, didn’t care what they were.

I’ve always said I wanted to write after the service jobs. However, I’m not sure I want to do that anymore. But everyone always tells me I’m meant to help people, just by the way I interact with people. So, it’s kind of hard to decide what my career will be because there are so many ways to help people. But I gained so many skills from on-campus jobs… like knowing how to solve every problem… this is one of those problems – where {do} I belong for the short- or long-term. The long-term goal is to write for a career, and if we’re not writing, we’re helping people.

 

For this last question, is there a fun fact you want to share? Or something that we wouldn’t know about you?

When I was in third grade, I told everybody that I was going to be the first mixed-race woman to be the president of the United States. And you know what, I (unfortunately) can still do it!

 

Content has been edited for length and clarity from an interview on February 8, 2025 with Kaylie MacDonald ‘25, the Campus Employment Project Intern.  

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Campus Employment at Wesleyan, On-Campus Employers, Student Employees