ABBY BABCOCK

mornings at the coffee shop and then serve lunch and dinner at the SandBar.”

Babcock believes the skills she has honed as a server will help her in the future. “I’ve gained valuable people skills from being a server that I don’t think I’d have acquired in other jobs,” she said. “Tensions can really run high in a restaurant, and I’ve learned how to effectively deal with conflict, whether it’s with coworkers or with people that I’m serving. I’ve also gotten much more confident as a communicator, discovering how to talk to people and how to react in a variety of situations.”

Babcock is excited about her next move—to Hawaii—where she’s taken a job as a registered behavior technician. To land the job, she’s had to take 40 hours beyond her college work to be certified to work with families who have younger children with autism. This kind of work may open her future to perhaps obtaining a master’s degree, becoming an ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) therapist, and having her own business.

However, in the next few years, while she is young, she plans to travel internationally as much as possible, experiencing different cultures and coastlines before she settles down to focus on her career.

Kirsten Oyler is from the St. Matthews area of Louisville, Kentucky. She currently attends St. Louis University, where she is a junior with a double major in anthropology and Spanish. Oyler has been coming to Hilton Head Island every year on family vacations since she was a child.

“My parents started coming to Hilton Head about 40 years ago,” Oyler said, “so I’ve vacationed here my entire life. In 2019, my parents bought a house in Palmetto Dunes, and we’ve come here on and off more frequently since then.”

Oyler’s first job was at a pet store when she was only 14, and she worked there for five summers. She has also worked consistently through college. This summer, she got a job as a server at Charbar Co. Burgers & Sushi, another SERG Group establishment. Previously, her older sister worked with David Copeland, one of the managers at Charbar Co. Burgers & Sushi, and Oyler contacted him about summer employment. Her favorite part about her job, like the previous students, is the people she works with and the people she meets as a server.