Freshman Shriya Gurung is digging into farm life with her family’s business, tackling everything from runaway goats to mastering animal care.

“There was this one time when a goat tried to escape,” Gurung said. “It broke through the wall and I had to chase after it. I got a lot of exercise that day.”

Gurung has adapted to her job at the family farm in Clarksville, Greene County, where she started a year ago. The farm sells animals, including pigs, cows, goats, and chickens.

“I started working there in 2023,” Gurung said. “Working there was kind of hard to get used to, but I’m doing well now.”

Some of the crops she grows on the farm are wheat, potatoes, and tomatoes. Although she takes care of animals and crops, she also has other responsibilities. Gurung said she enjoys the animals but also experiences difficulties with them.

“The most rewarding part of working at the farm is playing with the animals,” Gurung said. “Despite this, the biggest challenge is taming them.”

Although there aren’t many challenges concerning animals, if one of them has disabilities, her family takes on the responsibility of taking care of it themselves.

“We keep and raise all of the animals that have disabilities, are blind, or things that can impair their daily living,” Gurung said.

Gurung said she enjoys working there, but she also said working at the farm is temporary until she can get an official job.

“I want to work at the farm until I actually get a job,” Gurung said. “I do get paid, but I want experience at other places too.”

She said she hopes to continue helping out her mom and making more memories in the future. Sophomore Laila Ruvolo is one of the three workers at her family cafe, Above & Beyond Catering, in Whitehall.

“It’s just the three of us most of the time,” Ruvolo said. “Me, my mom, and her best friend. We play music all of the time and it’s really fun there.”

Ruvolo isn’t officially employed, but she helps out whenever her mom asks. Because of this, she sometimes has to manage her time carefully to get her homework done.

“I would come home from school and sometimes they would need help if someone had dinner reservations,” Ruvolo said. “I would have to find time to do homework sometime else.”

She enjoys many things about working at the cafe. Music is one of the parts of her work experience she favors.

“They have live music and performers a lot of the time and everyone enjoys themselves,” Ruvolo said.

Their cafe not only serves food, but also offers cooking classes.

Serving a mix of foods from around the globe including Italian, Egyptian, and Asian, Above & Beyond sources its food directly from farms and reputable companies.

Ruvolo has made many memories there.

“Working one of the pop-up dinners, I got to meet a lot of my mom’s new friends and people who perform there,” Ruvolo said. “It was just a really good time and I had fun.”

Junior Tanner Zalar said he has helped out at his family’s landscaping company, Zalar’s LLC, for as long as he can remember.

When Zalar was younger, he had a lot of limitations in helping his father and brothers. As he had grown up, he said he had been given a lot more opportunities to help.

One of his favorite memories is of his father first introducing him to different machinery.

“One of my favorites was the bulldozer because we got to destroy a bunch of stuff,” he said. “It was fun to learn and have my dad teach me all of the skills of being an operator.”

Now that he is older and is allowed to do more work, Zalar looks forward to helping out the business during the summer.

“I loved every second and now I can operate one (a bulldozer) by myself pretty well,” he said.

Zalar said he does a variety of jobs, depending on the project at hand. The experiences provide useful and versatile life skills, he said.

“I do landscaping, snow removal, run machines, cut grass, drive vehicles like trucks, pour concrete, and build – whatever is needed,” he said.

One benefit to working with his family is the close environment, and another is that he is doing work that he really likes.

“I get to be around my family and people that I’m close with – and do a job I actually enjoy while making good money,” he said.

Helping out in her mother’s business, Wren & Rita Bath, Body, and Home, has helped junior Vivien Skalos grow closer to her mom. 

Wren & Rita – the name coming from a combination of Skalos’ and her mother’s own middle names – has been in business for 16 years, starting in 2008, shortly after Skalos was born. 

Skalos has helped out since she was about 9, helping out for seven years now.

They hand make their products, and the business usually sells its products at local craft shows.

“I like helping out with the shows,” Skalos said. “I usually help check out people, and it is really fun to see what they are buying and what scents they like the most.” 

The business started with just home goods, like wool and knitting supplies, but has expanded into skincare and bath products. 

“It started off with just lip balms and lotion bars, and now two different types of body scrubs and regular lotion. So it has definitely evolved since she started with skincare,” Skalos said. 

Skalos likely will follow her own path in terms of a career, but she still plans to help out in the business.

“I don’t know if it will carry on into my future career,” she said. “But if my mom continues to do it, I will definitely continue to help. It is something I enjoy doing.”

Freshman Aashanata Neupane has grown closer to her family and learned valuable work skills by helping out around her family’s BP convenience store in Peters Township for the past year. 

Throughout the experience, there have been some memorable moments, including a time that an Icee machine broke down and blew up inside of the store.

“It was pretty funny, but I had to clean it up,” she said. 

Neupane primarily stocks items and watches over the store, while her dad mostly works at the register. However, she finds many ways to help out.

Neupane’s parents bought the store from a relative three years ago, so it has been in the family for some time. Since the store had previously belonged to her uncle, the family has not faced many challenges keeping the store viable. 

Still, there have been some more difficult aspects of running the store.

“During the holidays it gets difficult because people are usually busy. And because it is really cold outside, people don’t come as much,” she said.

Despite the decrease in customers during the holiday season, the store remains in good condition, Neupane said.

An upside to working with the family, she said, is that she has no problem getting along with coworkers. If she were working at a different job, things may be different.

Neupane plans to continue working around the store and helping her parents for as long as she can. 

Junior Zach Lieu has seen customers grow up over the years at his family restaurant, Silk Road, as he has himself.

“Most of our customers are on a first-name basis with us. We have been invited to countless weddings, met newborns and watched them grow, and even served people till they passed away,” Lieu said. “Many of our customers watched my siblings and cousins grow up and know more about us when we were little than we do.”

Lieu, who works in the front of the restaurant, has grown as a person through the business, particularly in terms of patience and his work ethic.

“Silk Road has taught me many life lessons. I am grateful for what it has taught me in the business and restaurant industry, as well as regular life lessons,” Lieu said.

Lieu said scheduling shifts is easier when working within a family business than with another business or company.

“The work schedule is definitely more flexible than if you were to work with somebody else,” he said.

But his job is much more than that.

“It’s also a good bonding experience considering I work with my whole entire family,” Lieu said “It’s good to have close mentors working in the restaurant industry.”

Working at her family business, 885 Supply, has turned junior Cassidy Tortoreti into a bit of an expert about landscape projects.

Tortoreti has learned about the landscape and supply company’s products well enough to give recommendations. 

“I learned how to communicate with customers and the different materials needed for building walls and other projects,” she said. “Customers come in with questions. I answer and help them pick the best material for their projects and recommend products that would benefit them.” 

Tortoreti said that there are benefits to working with family. 

“Some benefits are that it is a flexible work schedule because your family understands your obligations and extracurriculars. It is also more of a comfortable and laid-back work atmosphere because you know everybody,” she said. 

Tortoreti said she has not only learned lessons about the company’s operations but also life skills.

“When having to work with customers, I have learned patience, respect, and communication,” she said. “In the business, I answer phone calls, take customer orders, and schedule deliveries,” she said. 

Tortoreti has been working at the store for several years, although she has been around the store for longer than that.

“Even though I haven’t worked in the business for that long, I have been around the atmosphere and the people, which helped me when I started to work there,” she said.