Dana Bonifacio, a psychology major at the University of Hawaii West at Oahu, says she’s sooooo broke.
"Most days I have no money, and on every other day I have less than that," Bonifacio said. "Sad my life."
So how did the 25-year-old Wahiawa resident find herself in this predicament?
"I’m a college student — enough said."
With rising tuition and personal expenses, some students like Bonifacio have turned to creative ways to make some extra money. A recent survey indicated about 93 percent of UH-Manoa students have held jobs at some point during their college career, according to Myrtle Ching-Rappa, director of the Manoa Career Center.
Bonifacio works from home selling stuff on eBay to earn that extra cash. "With all my classes, doing this works perfectly around my schedule because I can do everything from home and it doesn’t take very long," she said.
For the last two years, she’s made up to $500 a month by auctioning her personal items — from Nike shoes to Le Sportsac purses and jackets — through the online marketplace.
"I sell things that I buy too much of," said Bonifacio, who admits to being a "compulsive shopper and borderline hoarder."
She said she prefers eBay for getting top dollar.
"I used to sell stuff on Craigslist, but I’ve made more money on eBay. People will pay more than $100 for items that I bought on clearance. It’s crazy."
Ching-Rappa said there are no data on how many students earn money off campus, but UH-Manoa employs about 4,000 in a variety of part-time jobs, most offering 10 to 20 hours of work a week. The Career Center also has job listings with private employers.
Current listings include setting up exhibits at the campus art gallery for $11.45 an hour and assisting with stage productions for the same pay rate. Intramural sports officials make $10 an hour, and fire safety inspectors who make monthly checks of portable fire extinguishers and fire hose cabinets are paid $9 an hour.
Student "telecounselors" earn $10 an hour to make phone contacts with prospective students and assist with recruitment activities, such as offering campus tours, Ching-Rappa said.
Child-care positions are numerous, she added. For example, the America Reads program pays students $11.45 an hour to serve as reading tutors in elementary schools.
UH-Manoa student Craig Dias, 23, has been working for three years as a student assistant at the Children’s Center on campus, where he gets paid $11 an hour.
"What this really means is that I help the teachers with whatever they need," he said. "I’m basically there to make the teachers’ lives easier."
His responsibilities include watching the children on the playground and organizing games such as tag and baseball. While supervising nap time, he often is able to catch up on his class reading.
"I love my job," said Dias, who’s majoring in secondary education. "Before I figured out about reading during nap time, I hated that part of my job. After my epiphany my job is total fun. I’m either playing with kids or reading books."
Imani Miniex has found an unconventional way to pick up some extra income while on campus: She makes $18 an hour shedding her clothes and posing nude for live-model drawing classes.
"Being a nude model is definitely the most revealing job I’ve ever had, pun intended," Miniex said.
The 22-year-old anthropology major has been modeling in the raw for the past six months. Needing some extra cash, she strolled into the art department office inquiring about work at the art gallery but came out a model.
"As a student, I always have a fair amount of effort to put forth in a day, so modeling gives me a chance for introspection … and I also get to see myself from someone else’s eyes. I witness art and become art. It’s awesome."
During a typical session, Miniex will pose for almost three hours. She checks in at the art office and is told what the focus of day’s art class is: portraits or a study of hands, for example. If she’s posing in the buff, she’ll disrobe in a private room and emerge naked to take a seat in the class. She poses for 15 minutes at a time, and during that time, aside from breathing, she is not supposed to move.
"It was terrifying the first time, but these aren’t immature students," she said. "You feel a little silly when you realize your imperfections aren’t the least bit of concern (to the artists). It’s gratifying."
While the pay is good, the work is intermittent, and not many classes require live models.
Elsewhere on the Manoa campus, Regan Balmoja, 19, earns $9 an hour in a traditional student pursuit: taking notes.
She’s employed by the Kahi o ka Ulu Ana ("The Place of Growing") program, which provides services to disabled students.
Note takers are assigned to attend certain classes and take notes for a disabled student. In most cases the disabled student attends the class as well, so the note taker’s job is to provide the student with supplementary notes to back up his or her own work.
"I love my job," Balmoja said. "Essentially I get paid to go to extra classes and learn, without having to do any homework or take tests. This might not sound like a blast to everyone, but for someone who loves school and learning as much as I do, it’s great."
While note taking is just one of many free services KOKUA provides for students with disabilities ranging from vision and hearing impairments to attention deficit disorder and autism, it is the most utilized service.
According to Vanessa Ito, KOKUA’s associate director, at the start of the fall semester, there were note takers in more than 250 classes. Last academic year, the program employed more than 100 note takers.
"Students who work here genuinely enjoy and respect working with students who have disabilities," Ito said. "It’s a tremendous experience."
Balmoja agrees. Not only have her note-taking skills improved, but more important, it has also raised her awareness of the challenges facing students with disabilities.
"I’ve come to see that there are all sorts of people with different strengths, weaknesses and learning styles," she said in an email. "KOKUA students truly are capable students who just need certain accommodations."
Balmoja said she plans continue to work as a note taker until she graduates.
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The Manoa Career Center is open 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 weekdays at the Queen Lili‘uokalani Center for Student Services, Room 212, 2600 Campus Road; call 956-7007, email careers@ hawaii.edu or go online at manoa.hawaii.edu/careercenter.
