Everywhere one goes in Searcy, there are ... Students At Work While valuable learning can be found within the walls of Harding, education often does not stop there. For many students, "real world" experiences provide equally powerful lessons. Finding out about the surrounding community and what it has to offer is a unique aspect of the college experience. This is certainly true of Harding's home, Searcy. The opportunity for students to be a part of Searcy is a chief concern of Denise Miller, director of the university's cooperative education program. From fast food to babysitting and fromWal-Mart to washing windows, many opportunities for employment can be found there. "There's a lot of different things; we have anything you can think of," Miller said. Students like Heri Hernandez, a junior elementary education major from Eagle Pass, Texas, and a customer service manager at Hastings, agree with Miller. "I come in touch with more people. You learn to interact with different kinds of people, and you learn to handle different situations," he said. Searcy' s businesses - whether grocery stores, retailers or industries - depend greatly on Harding students. Many students choose to work on hectic East Race Avenue, with its long parade of fast food restaurants like Mazzio's Pizza and McDonald's. While those businesses are plentiful, their influence is eclipsed by another fixture on that major artery - WalMart. It operates distribution centers for its WalMart and Sam's Club stores, as well as two retail outlets, Bud's Warehouse Outlet and the Wal-Mart Supercenter, which also account for a large piece of the employment pie. The Supercenter alone employs from 60 to 75 students from Harding and Arkansas State University's Beebe campus, according to personnel manager Rita Turpin. 'We have students working all over the store. More of them work as cashiers because of the flexible hours they can get. If we can help out, we're glad to do it." With mostly freshmen and sophomores working there, Wal-Mart offers the chance for newcomers to get acquainted quickly with the community, as many customers come through the doors every hour of every day. Among the customers are many of the workers' friends who come to visit them and buy something in the process. "An additional benefit that students bring to Wal-Mart," Turpin said, "is that they generally have a better attitude and smile more because they are glad to be working here." Of her workers, Turpin commented, "We've got a pretty good group around here." A chance for new lessons to be learned lies in Searcy and the surrounding area, and although the tests of the community classroom can be tricky ones, they often turn out to be some of the most rewarding. - Eric Rodgers Ki Sun Lee prepares to scan a CD into the register at Ha.stings. Students provided a bright, cheery disposition for their customers. Photo by Aaron Gillihan. "/come in touch with more people. Youleam to interact with different kinds of people, and you learn to handle different situations." - Heri Hernandez
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