“I help people and do something I enjoy,” said junior Molly McGurran about her job at Seven Stars Café. While Molly claims that she uses most of the money for herself, this is not the case for everyone in Edina. Whether or not you enjoy your job becomes irrelevant when being able to pay for college is an unknown. It may be a rough ride working in high school, but the determination a job brings out is well worth any work situation.

For a highly limited number of students in Edina, inheriting a rich uncle’s fortune may be a reasonable option. A few trust fund babies may ride on dreams of entitlement but more and more students at Edina are working hard to get to the top. Take junior Neil Febel, who works twenty five hours a week on top of being in the school’s musical. “A lot of it is to take the burden of spending off my parents.” Febel said that his family is “not as wealthy as the typical Edina family,” which according to the U.S. Census makes on average $132,000 a year, about $59,500 above the national average of $72,500. Febel, who states that he was “raised on a very hard work ethic,” is also planning to cover his entire college education.

Sophomore Jack Kirsch has stood against the Edina stereotype by creating his own small business. While he thinks it’s no big deal, only working about “half an hour a day” as his own boss, the simple skills he has picked up like doing “invoices and expense reports” already puts him well in front of most high school graduates. His initial goal was to “make lots of money” and through his ambition he has done so much more than that and already feels comfortable as a CEO.

Many of Edina’s youth do, in fact, have a “work ethic,” one that will propel people like Neil and Jack to success. Some students may complain about their job more often than they actually spend time at work, but they know what they are doing is important and those who persevere will one day have the satisfaction of breaking the cake eater label.