Editor’s Note: This is the third in a three-part series about NIU students who have to work their way through school.

Many students will head home this winter break to work part-time for that extra cash for holiday gifts and new clothes.

While some students will be waiting tables at restaurants, folding clothes at the mall, flipping burgers in the food court or ripping ticket stubs at the theater, the stresses of school won’t interfere with them. Finals will have been taken and all morsels of education will have left their mind for an entire month, replaced with the sounds of cash registers and repetitive holiday music.

For many other students, however, they must balance the two stresses all school-year long, without having their mind taking a vacation from either. One particular student has yet to go home for a summer break, and has left for only one winter break in her four years at NIU.

For senior history major Amber Emken, going home isn’t an option, especially when it’s four hours away.

“Make sure you have people around you that are very supportive,” Emken said. “And don’t stress out too much because the semester will always end.”

While working 20 to 25 hours every Friday through Sunday and an occasional Thursday night at Carls Fargo Restaurant and Banquets in Sycamore, having an 18-credit hour load and being in the midst of her senior capstone project in history, Emken still manages to plan and organize her entire week.

A typical week for Emken has her gone from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. every Monday, with a two to three-hour break. On both Tuesdays and Thursdays, she doesn’t have any classes, so she drives 45 minutes to Oregon for her student-teaching job. Fridays, she’s done with classes at noon and begins working at the restaurant at 3 p.m. until 10 or 11 p.m.

“It has gotten a lot better,” Emken said. “I used to work about 40 hours a week at two different jobs in addition to school. In the summer, I work 50 hours a week and I take about two classes.”

Emken’s expenses include rent and utilities for her apartment, and tuition. She has some loans, which she hopes to use to pay tuition before she graduates in May 2004.

“Every week I try to spread myself and see everyone,” Emken said. “I have designated Mondays and Wednesdays to classes, period. On Tuesdays, I try to squeeze in homework and cleaning the apartment. On Thursdays, I spend time with my boyfriend and I always call my mom. I dread the weekends the most when they come. I’m on my feet all day, even though we do have limited breaks. My boss is really nice and understands that I have school, but at times she does feel that the job comes first.”

Emken believes that she lives this rigorous lifestyle by having a lot of sympathy from her boyfriend and her supportive roommates.

“I’m not sure I could keep up with her work ethic,” said friend Eric Althoff, a sophomore biology major. “She is always gone whenever I go over to her place.”

Emken’s plans for the future include earning a masters degree and a Ph.D.

“I just finished my first clinical and I loved it,” she said. “I love working with kids. Hopefully I’ll graduate next May and go out and see what I can do with teaching.”

Steve Nebes, a sophomore computer science major and friend of Emken can’t believe her schedule.

“She works a lot,” he said. “Sometimes I forget what she even looks like. I don’t know how she does it.”

Emken encourages others not to take on too much and not to let others rattle them either.

“Whatever you think you have, someone has it harder than you,” Emken said, as she was finishing grading her peers’ 30-page capstone papers.