Senior Megan Boersema can see a future filled with coffee.
At a young age, Megan realized that she enjoyed making things. More recently, she discovered her passion for making drinks as a barista. When she was roughly around the age of the age when she could get a job, she realized that she wanted to work at a Starbucks, believing that it would be fun to make the drinks. She applied for the job at Starbucks in Meijer, although it wasn’t her first job. She has been there for a little over a year now, and she has found a pure love in making coffee for other people.
After discovering her love for being a barista and making drinks, her future may now involve her very own coffee shop. She loves the interactions that she gets to have with the customers, from having a short and sweet conversation with them while she is making their drinks to seeing the bright smiles on the customers’ faces when she hands them their drinks. She believes that finding a job that can be done well and that is truly enjoyable is more important than being highly paid.
“I just like being able to make drinks,” Megan said. “I think it’s fun and if you get the right customers and they want to hold a conversation with you, it’s fun because then you guys can just be talking back and forth about random things. It’s also always fun when you give people their drinks and see how happy they are to receive them. When you make someone’s drink and hand it out to them, and they’re happy about receiving it, it makes you feel good about what you’re doing.”
Megan plans on attending Calvin University, where they have an entrepreneurship major, which she would major in. Knowing that many small coffee shops sometimes have a hard time getting their word out about themselves, she is also considering minoring in marketing to learn how to advertise her future coffee shop best.
One thing she knows that she also has to consider is that to have a successful small business, there has to be something that sets you apart from other shops. So, knowing how to draw people in and gain the community’s interest by being different from other coffee places is a goal of hers.
On top of having enjoyable interactions with customers, Megan also loves her co-workers, some of whom are other FHC students and her sister. Having positive and friendly relationships with co-workers is always important, but Megan was lucky enough to work with friends and family. She also helps run a small coffee bar at her church, where her cousin sometimes works with her.
“I work with a lot of my friends at Starbucks,” Megan said.”I also have my sister, one of my best friends from kindergarten, and then my cousin, who all work with me at the one at my church. I feel like it’s fun to be able to work with people that you do know and that you are friends with. I feel like it makes it a lot more fun to be back [behind the counter] and in that friendly environment.”
Aside from her job at Starbucks, helping run her church’s coffee bar is helping her learn what goes into running a coffee shop rather than just how to make drinks. The pastor at her church loves coffee, and he thought of the idea of putting a coffee bar in the church. Knowing that Megan works at a Starbucks, he asked her if she wanted to manage the whole thing. So, after receiving a grant, they bought all of the machines and everything that was needed for a coffee place.
Megan only works there for about four hours a week, but she is in charge of purchasing syrups, milk, cups, and anything else that needs to be restocked. She gets reimbursed for all of it, but this responsibility helps teach her what goes into truly running a coffee shop. She also trains all of the other people who work there.
“I think I’ve trained about three people to help me,” Megan said. “So there’s four of us who know how to run the whole thing. Normally, there are only about two of us who work it on a Sunday, and it’s completely free for the people at our church, but people are allowed to give us donations.”
Megan now has experience making many types of drinks, and she has been able to try tasting and making lots of different drinks. She has found that she detests making any frappuccino. Even though there are only six steps to making one, that is six more steps Megan wishes there were. Her passion rather lies in making coffee. She also dislikes matcha which she believes just tastes like grass.
Before being a barista, Megan was not as big of a coffee person, but now she feels like she has different categories. Starbucks has a bunch of different categories, and she now has the insight to lead people to the best of drinks. Making the best drink for the customers and satisfying their desires is something that Megan finds fun in her job
Giving insight and tips on what drinks are good or not also is a way that she is a good way for her to share her drink knowledge. She says that the strawberry refresher is the best out of all of the refreshers and is the most popular, she also says to never get the pineapple one. She also loves an iced white mocha and a lot of people like to add cold foam on top and the caramel. Megan also is a fan of brown sugar shaken espresso.
Megan has found a job that she loves and is passionate about. With that, she has gained some wisdom that she believes everyone should think about when looking for a job. Everyone should try to find a job that they enjoy, are passionate about, and have fun doing.
“Let’s say I make $14 an hour,” Megan said. “I don’t. But let’s say I made $14 an hour. I would be okay with making seven an hour because I think that my job is so much fun, and I like being back there with the people that I’m with. I have fun doing what I’m doing. If you still think it’s fun and something that you love, you should be okay with being paid half the amount that you do get paid for doing it.”
