Meet 4 seniors graduating from campus jobs
A planetarium presenter, sports photographer, EMS chief and lifeguard share what made their roles worthwhile.
For many students, working a campus job is just as much a part of college as going to class.
Working provides income, teaches time management and other life skills and can be career preparatory. At Carolina, there’s a wide range of roles that students fill.
Meet four graduating Tar Heels whose campus jobs became a central part of their Carolina experiences.
Jasleen Kaur stars at Morehead
Kaur has worked at Morehead Planetarium and Science Center since May 2023.
When Jasleen Kaur reports to work at Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, she has a smile on her face.
“I’m going to be teaching, and I’m going to be connecting with people,” said Kaur, a chemistry and global studies double major from Charlotte, North Carolina.
Kaur has worked at the South’s oldest planetarium since May 2023, having learned about jobs there while taking an education pedagogy course as a first-year student.
After starting off as a summer camp counselor and STEM educator, Kaur expanded her role as a junior by becoming a full dome theater presenter.
“I wanted a new challenge,” Kaur said. “To me, that new challenge was going to be cross-training in the theater.”
Kaur had yet to take any astronomy or physics courses at Carolina, though she knew her presentation skills would carry over. She did such a good job teaching herself the science behind the shows that she not only earned the role but also amassed enough knowledge to add a physics minor.
When visitors from across the state, nation and world arrive for “Carolina Skies” and “One Sky, Many Eyes,” they get to experience Kaur in her role as celestial navigator. She points out constellations and the North Star, talks about finding cardinal directions and locating stars, and covers our solar system and galaxy.
While she loved working with children as a camp counselor and still relishes the STEM education role she also fills, Kaur said there’s something special about interacting with a large group of visitors.
“The theater gets the biggest audiences in this building,” she said. “I’ve gotten to connect with so many more people that way.”
Kaur always smiles when her friends attend her shows. It’s also fun for her when classmates and professors recognize the mic’d up voice in the theater.
Science education is at the heart of this work. That’s also Kaur’s next step.
She recently accepted a job teaching high school chemistry and plans to attend graduate school to become a chemistry professor. Morehead has been the perfect training ground for what’s ahead.
“It’s been such a privilege to work here,” Kaur said.
Ainsley Fauth captures Carolina Athletics
Fauth, pictured before covering a Carolina baseball game on April 18, has photographed the College World Series and has covered multiple Tar Heel national championship games.
The Tar Heels have relied on Ainsley Fauth for four years, and the senior’s production will be tough to replace.
While not a student-athlete, Fauth has photographed nearly all of the University’s 28 varsity programs during her stint as a Carolina Athletics photographer.
She documented national championships in women’s soccer and field hockey, captured iconic photos like Seth Trimble’s game-winner against Duke — and even showed up with her camera when Rameses and RJ dressed as ram-pires for Halloween.
“This job really changed my life,” said Fauth, a native of Pittsboro, North Carolina.
Like many students, Fauth entered college unsure about what she wanted to do for a living. This job has answered that question.
“It’s truly the best thing ever,” said Fauth, unjaded by sports’ demanding and odd hours. “The things I’ve gotten to do, the people I’ve gotten to meet. I would love to do this forever.”
As a child, Fauth was always interested in photography, and she saved money to buy a digital single-lens reflex camera as a high school senior.
When she arrived at Carolina, she did something uncharacteristic for her at the time by cold emailing Carolina Athletics director of photography Jeffrey Camarati about opportunities.
“The answer is always no unless you ask,” said Fauth, an exercise and sport science major.
Her first assignment fall of 2022 was shadowing Camarati at a volleyball match. Fauth is amazed by her growth since then.
She’s become a better technical photographer, learning through experience and from the photographers around her.
Fauth has also learned the tricks of the trade through countless reps at hundreds of assignments, developing a sixth sense for where she needs to be and what to look for— whether that’s when military parachuters are landing before a men’s lacrosse game, Tar Heel baseball players are performing a group celebration following a win or the final possession of a hoops game is approaching.
An overlooked aspect of photography, Fauth said, is familiarity with your subjects. She knows the Tar Heels and they know her.
She’s excelled at “being personable and building that relationship with the athletes.”
“That’s honestly my favorite part,” Fauth said.
Aneesh Shakthy drives Campus EMS
Shakthy said that beyond the group’s emergency response services, Campus EMS makes a difference at Carolina with educational classes and by working at Campus Health and doing other volunteer work.
Aneesh Shakthy needed just three years to graduate. During that time, he squeezed in a full experience with Campus EMS, Carolina’s student-run emergency services team based out of Campus Health.
A chemistry major from Cary, North Carolina, Shakthy went from joining the group and learning how it works as a first-year student to becoming assistant chief as a sophomore and then serving as chief this school year.
The summer before enrolling at Carolina, Shakthy earned his EMT-B certification at Durham Technical Community College. Once in Chapel Hill, he quickly applied to join the team of “students responding to students.”
“Campus EMS really stood out to me as an opportunity to be a first responder and grow my clinical and interpersonal skills while also serving the student community,” said Shakthy. He plans to attend medical school after working a year in a medicinal chemistry lab at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland.
Campus EMS provides traditional emergency response services, with night shifts Thursday through Saturday. Members on call use a quick-response vehicle to provide care to patients across campus before a transporting unit arrives.
But what makes the group “a pretty special service” is its other work around campus, Shakthy said. For instance, you’ve come across Campus EMS if you’ve received a flu shot or COVID-19 vaccine at Student Stores.
Last fall Campus EMS helped administer over 6,000 vaccines. “You don’t want to be treating something if it doesn’t need to happen in the first place,” Shakthy said.
Members also serve as medical assistants at Campus Health clinics and teach educational courses to student organizations on various health topics, including first aid, CPR, administering naloxone during an overdose and responding to severe allergic reactions.
“We build those connections, and we often get invited back semester after semester,” Shakthy said.
Growing those connections has been a point of emphasis during Shakthy’s time as chief because he believes in education’s power to create a safer campus.
Shakthy said he’ll cherish the sense of camaraderie developed with his colleagues from late-night shifts. He’ll also hold on to lessons learned about leadership, which he described as “doing what you say you’re going to do and doing what you tell other people to do.”
“I love this agency,” Shakthy said, “and I will hopefully be able to give back to it.”
Cameron Morris works poolside
Serving as a lifeguard has been a reliable and familiar job for Morris at Carolina.
Lifeguarding is thought of as one of the quintessential teenage jobs. Growing up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Cameron Morris watched her older brother do it. When she turned 15 and her mother suggested she get a job, she went to the neighborhood pool.
Once at UNC-Chapel Hill, it made sense for her to continue with a role she was used to.
“I wanted to have some spending money when I came to college,” she said. “I saw the Campus Rec people at my orientation, and they had a stand about hiring. I was like, ‘Great, I can keep lifeguarding.’”
She still had to try out for the gig. But since getting it, Morris has gladly held on to this reliable and familiar role at Bowman Gray Indoor Pool and Kessing Outdoor Pool.
Morris typically works 15 hours a week but has done as many as 25 before, and her hours vary based on how busy she is each semester. The job was also still there for her when she returned to Chapel Hill after studying abroad in Thailand the spring semester of her sophomore year.
The role largely entails what you’d expect from a lifeguard job. She’s thankfully avoided having to spring into action because of an emergency in the water.
“Luckily, it’s mostly preventative,” Morris said of a lifeguard’s work.
Training is a big part of that, and Morris has taken on leadership responsibilities at Campus Recreation. Last year she was promoted to program assistant and works closely with the aquatics director to help manage a staff of roughly 30 lifeguards.
Morris earned a lifeguard instructor certification from UNC Aquatics, teaches community courses and assists with training fellow lifeguards.
Morris thinks the leadership skills she’s developed from the job will help her professionally. An environmental sciences and mathematics double major, she studied quantitative energy systems and is interested in renewable energy jobs. She could also pursue graduate school one day for engineering.
Morris might be done with lifeguarding soon, but employers want to hear about the work.
“It is something that comes up for some of the positions I’m applying for,” Morris said.
