By: Sophie Wood

As she takes her right hand to slip her black hat over her full, blonde bun, she takes her left hand to shut the door behind her. She pats her jacket pocket to make sure she remembered to bring her pink pepper spray before she makes her nightly walk to work. She squints her emerald-green eyes and grits her teeth as a gush of wind brushes her face. Even though she’s an Oregon-native, she will never be fond of cold, rainy walks.

Alisha Barker is currently a part-time worker at the Fresh Market in the EMU and a full-time student at the University of Oregon. When she’s not in class or studying, she’s at work. Eliza Yank, one of Alisha’s current roommates, comments, “She’s always running out the door!” She giggles. “It’s like class, work, library, repeat. She’s crazy, but she works hard.” When Alisha isn’t in school during the summer, she replaces her study time with an extra job—averaging a 65-hour workweek. Most of Alisha’s friends, including Eliza, don’t understand why Alisha is constantly working.

Growing up in Beaverton, Oregon, Alisha was happy-go-lucky, bubbly and carefree. She looked forward to her weekly ballet classes and going to school so she could play with her best friends. Alisha was only in fifth grade when she found out she would be paying for college on her own. “I remember distinctly one day that my best friend Marisa was talking about her college fund. I went home after school and asked my mom, ‘How much is in my college fund?’ and my mom was just like, ‘We don’t have one for you.’” At this point, Alisha’s parents were divorced, but she didn’t understand why her dad had left. In reality, her parent’s divorce was a result of her dad going to jail for drug addiction. Amid his addiction, her dad “bled” them of all their money. Once he got out of jail, he struggled to keep a job, so he could never pay child support. Her mom was working three jobs, but she still had to pull from Alisha’s college fund to get by. At some point, the fund was sucked dry. “My mom told me that I was going to have to work hard, save, get loans, scholarships, grants.” Alisha shrugs and chuckles. “I just thought, ‘Alright, let’s get going.’”

To Alisha, the exhaustion, time commitment, and rainy walks to the Fresh Market are well worth it. With hopes of getting into the Lundquist College of Business, she tinkers with the idea of pursuing a career in marketing. Until then, Alisha’s sticking to her regimen of class, work, library, repeat.