Sign of the Times

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With the average number of jobs per household in Michigan declining, Patrick Foth is doing his part to increase the average. Foth is a full-time preveterinary medicine senior in the Lyman Briggs college, but he also has six paying jobs, an internship, is a member of nine organizations (both at MSU and in the local community) and is a volunteer at four charities.

“If I don’t enjoy doing something, I wouldn’t do it. And that’s basically the philosophy I live by,” Foth said. “It’s one of those things that was just sort of bred into me as a child.”

Several of Foth’s more time-consuming obligations include working as an international spokesmodel for Saab, where he must know every detail about each new car model in both English and German, working as a bartender at Spiral Video & Dance, working as a point secretary for the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association and interning at the University of Findlay’s English Equestrian Program in Findlay, Ohio.

But Foth said the activities that fill his time all are things he loves to do.

“In order for me to have more free time, an aspect of my life that I truly enjoy has to be cut out,” said Foth.

Foth comes from a family that can afford to put
him through college, but instead of letting his family pay for his expenses and school, he works for
his money.

The money he makes pays for his rent and other bills first, and the remainder goes toward his college education, Foth said. And Foth said it all is money he feels he has earned in this declining economy.

“No one ever likes hearing that a sister, a mother, a brother is losing their job. But at the same time, I don’t feel like the jobs I have have ever been handed to me,” Foth said. “It’s a lot of hard work and dedication that I put forth to seek out work.”

Even with as much as Foth does with his time, he said he still wishes he had time to do more, and he has to remind himself that “there are only 24 hours in a day.”

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