Chances are good that a Southfield High student is waiting on customers most any day of the week at a certain Subway sandwich shop in Southfield.
At least seven Blue Jays are employed there at present and a few former Blue Jays also work there.
Among the current Subway staffers are seniors Jared Mims, Alfonso Rushin and Marquez Hicks. Anyssa Jones, an alumna of The Class of 2011, is also an employee there.
“They are all very good kids and hard workers,” says owner Neil Patel.
The Subway shop is on Lahser Road between 10 Mile and 11 Mile – walking distance from the school.
Mims was hired to the Subway location in June of 2011. “I applied to Subway because I heard they were hiring and two of my friends were already working there.” Mims, who is a wrestler for Southfield High, has had to learn how to balance school, work and wrestling. “It’s all about time management,” Mims says. “I have to keep my focus on one thing at a time.”
Alfonzo Rushin, who has been employed at Subway since December 2010, is also a wrestler. He says that he went out for the job at Subway because it was something that he needed to do for himself. As he puts it, “I needed to step up as a man.”
Marquez Hicks is the newest employee to the shop. He was just hired in January of 2012. He admits that having a job and keeping up with school work is a lot harder than he expected.
This particular Subway is also a donut shop with a baker making fresh donuts daily. The students who work there make the subs, work at the register, prepare vegetables and bread, and run the Lottery machine and the donut shop.
So far, Mims says, his new job is all that – and a bag of chips.
He says he considers himself lucky to have a job during this era of high unemployment.
More than 18 percent of teenagers who would like to be employed are unable to find work, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics.