Senior Chris Datz is a delivery driver for Patelmo’s Pizzeria in West Chester. Datz describes how he first became interested in working there.

“I started working at Patelmo’s in early September,” Datz said. “It is three minutes from my house and I have been going there for a long time, so it seemed like a good place to get a job. I was eating with my family, asked for an application, and started working the next week.”

Delivery driving may seem simple and self-explanatory, however, there are aspects of this job that are more than just driving. Datz explained: 

“I organize orders as they come in, and put together the food the kitchen makes. Once everything in the order is complete, I mark the order to myself and say the order is ‘out.’ I deliver the food and get the customer to sign,” Datz said. “I then return, mark that order as complete and move on to the next one. When there are no deliveries, I build boxes and take out all the trash, usually at the end of the night. Once there are no more deliveries and all of the trash is taken out, I bring in all of my signed receipts, to my manager and cash out.”

Datz, who typically works four to twelve hours per week, enjoys the flexibility of his job. He explains how this helps him balance his job with school, family, and other aspects of his life.

“On nights when I have another commitment, sports, or a big game I want to go to, I usually tell my boss I can’t work,” Datz said. “He asks for my schedule at the beginning of the week, which is another benefit of the job, flexibility. This makes it easier to balance all of these things, but it is tough getting home at 9 some nights with all of my homework still to be done.”

Instead of working for a larger food delivery service like Uber Eats or DoorDash, Datz prefers to work for a small restaurant and cherishes the personal relationships that are created through this style of work.

“I enjoy knowing the people I work with and the family environment more. The owner of the restaurant was a friend of my grandfather’s, so it seemed obvious to work for him rather than a big-name company.”

Contrary to Datz, senior Robby DiFabio works delivering food for the large national company, DoorDash, which gives him more hourly flexibility.

“I have a very busy schedule and I don’t have time to get a consistent job where I’d have to work 4-7 hours a day, so I had to resort to DoorDash to make money,” DiFabio said.

When “dashing,” DiFabio logs onto the app and travels to his desired location. On the app, DiFabio can view how busy each location is and if there are any monetary incentives (ranges from $1.00 to $3.00) for each completed delivery.

Once DiFabio arrives in his selected area, he is prompted with orders from any restaurant within the area’s boundaries. He then is able to either accept or decline the order. To help the dasher make the decision whether or not to accept or decline, DoorDash informs their drivers of the total mileage and pay.

“I get on the app, press “dash now,” and then get going. I pick up orders and drop them off at people’s homes. I do get a small employee discount [on personal DoorDash orders] as well,” DiFabio said.

Although he does not have a traditional job, DiFabio typically works three to four shifts per week. He notes that the ability to end dashing at any time is very convenient.

“I dash around 12 hours a week. Most of my time comes from after basketball and football practice. Other times I do weekends during the days and nights,” DiFabio said. “It’s actually very easy to balance everything with DoorDash because whenever I’m free I dash then end it when I have plans.”

DiFabio plans to continue dashing even after he graduates from Malvern. He suggests he will likely use it as a side hustle whenever he has free time.

“This is definitely something I’ll do after high school. I do have a lot of summer jobs but whenever I have free time I’ll do it for money,” DiFabio said. “Also, it’ll be really easy when I come home for breaks to make money with this app because I can choose my hours.”

Another popular industry among students was technology. Senior Noah Buscaglia, an Apple employee, depicts his job working as a Specialist.

“I work in the Product Zone of the store; we are the experts on new products. We are the ones that people come to when they have questions about which phone or computer they should get,” Buscaglia said. “I work with customers to identify their needs, help them understand what’s what, make the technical stuff a little bit easier to understand, and then guide them through the checkout process and get them on their way.”

Buscaglia has desired to work for Apple since he was very young, so as soon as he turned 18, he applied for a job in August of 2021 and began working shortly after. His favorite aspect of the job is that he is able to help others and explore new experiences each day.

“It’s a fun job. I love helping people and it’s never monotonous. Every day brings different experiences,” Buscaglia said. “I am always learning something new, and it’s not just product knowledge. It’s everything from people skills to leadership skills, and things like that. They’re [Apple] a great company that really cares about things like equality, the environment, and other important principles.”

As an Apple employee, Buscaglia is required to work a minimum of 20 hours per week. Although he loves his job, Buscaglia does admit that it can sometimes be difficult to balance his job and normal life.

“In the first semester, it was difficult to handle because I was dually enrolled at St. Joe’s University. So with family, social, and school plus college applications, it was a little bit more difficult, but now it’s fine,” Buscaglia said. “They [Apple] are flexible and allow you to have a social life outside of work, and even though it can be demanding work at times, I think it’s a pretty good balance.”

In college, Buscaglia plans on majoring in business, not technology, but recognizes the tremendous internship opportunities that his job at Apple could connect him with in the future.

“I’m not pursuing technology as a career, but there are plenty of ways to grow within the company,” Buscaglia said. “I am going to be majoring in business, so I definitely see the possibility of internships with business teams in both corporate and retail. But I can still definitely work there through college in the Product Zone just as a part-time job.”

Senior John Costalas holds one of the more unique student jobs. He works as a technician at Vintage Race and Automotive, a garage located in Malvern. His job involves fixing and heavily modifying German cars to increase their performance.

Costalas began working in this field over two years ago. A garage in Reading, Autoride, first offered him a summer-long apprenticeship and he quickly developed a passion for car modification.

“I originally started working for Autoride over two years ago as a summer-long apprenticeship. After quickly picking up the trade, I was offered a job there throughout the summers,” Costalas said.

Since he is now able to assist family and friends when they have car issues, Costalas notes that this work has been convenient in saving money.

“I find a lot of joy in working on and modifying cars and one major benefit for me is that I can do all the work on my own cars as well as most of my friend’s and family’s cars, which has helped save some money.”

Compared to a 35 hour week in the summer, Costalas works 10 hours a week throughout the academic year. He has found that creating a plan is key to avoiding stress and balancing all of his commitments.

“There are definitely times when it is challenging to have a healthy balance of friends, work, school, and everything,” Costalas said. “I have found that creating a plan for my week and my weekends has been extremely helpful in making sure I do not get too overwhelmed with my job.”

After modifying cars for over two years, Costalas has certainly discovered a passion of his and potential career path post college.

“I plan to go to college for engineering, and then after I plan to enter the performance automotive industry,” Costalas said. “I want to eventually own my own company that specializes in designing and manufacturing performance parts for German and other high-end cars.”

At the start of high school, junior Steven Getsie decided to forego club hockey and instead pursue a job as an official. He quickly found this job was not the best fit.

“I quit playing club ice hockey and it gave me a good bit more time to do what I wanted to do. I still had a good bit of extra time on my hands so I wanted to get a job,” Getsie said. “I am technically a USA Hockey official, but scheduling games for that was pretty complex and it always slipped my mind.”

Getsie recently acquired a job at Flight on Ice in Edgemont. Flight on Ice is a pop-up ice skating rink that also holds events throughout the winter season with singers and food.

When Getsie’s father and former ice hockey coach were tasked with staffing the rink, he simply filled out an application and was rewarded with a job. His roles include helping maintain the ice and working with skate rentals.

“I do a lot of various jobs. I’ll be a skate guard for part of some shifts, helping people who fall on the ice and then I’ll rotate out into skate rental, which gets crazy with skate returns on busy days,” Getsie said. “I’ll do admissions, making sure people have their waivers signed and scanning their tickets if they already bought them. I also help the Zamboni guys with cleaning the ice and making sure it’s clear so nothing freezes up and breaks.”

Although laborious, Getsie enjoys his job and works both during the week and on weekends. 

“During the school week, I try for around 15 hours, which is about three shifts or so. Over Christmas break, I put in a little over 70 hours in all, some double-time on Christmas and New Year’s Eve,” Getsie said.

Because Getsie began working significant hours over Christmas break, he has not yet had any trouble balancing his work with other commitments.

“It hasn’t been bad balancing everything but there were a couple of times when the ice was wretched and I was there till 10:30 PM fixing it and another where the Zamboni froze, and I and another guy shoveled the entire rink till past 11 PM.”

Malvern students balancing jobs and school work demonstrate a solid work ethic and organizational skills being honed. Many of these employment opportunities are not available for all high school students (some requiring a vehicle, or access to an atypical field like tech or specialized athletics). But these MP students working and preparing for life past high school are gaining invaluable skills like effective communication and time management.

These Malvern students have found particular fields that interest them and provide them with fulfilling work during the school year. Whether it’s a job just for now, or a field they might pursue in the future, these guys are taking steps toward finding success outside the classroom.