Ring, ring, ring. Students are excited to go home, to sports and to extracurricular activities. Meanwhile, sophomore Lilly Downs goes straight to work at Rise N’ Roll, a bakery that sells fresh, baked goods. 

“We sell baked goods like pies and cookies. We also sell popcorn, jars of stuff like jam and pickles, egg noodles, honey, syrup, stroopwafels, etc. But our main claim to fame is our donuts, specifically our cinnamon caramel donut.”

Downs has been working at Rise N’ Roll for almost two years, since eighth grade.

“I wanted to have a little extra money, and Rise N’ Roll was the only job that accepted 14 year-olds,” Downs said. “I knew I could do the job, so I decided to join.”

Downs doesn’t bake the items sold in the store. The company that owns Rise N Roll, Amish Bakery, bakes them in Middlesbury, Indiana and goes through a delivery process to deliver all baked goods to all locations. 

“The Amish, up North in Middlebury, get up extremely early and bake everything ordered for that day,” Downs said. “They then load up trucks that they pay for people to drive and take them to the Rise ‘n Rolls. Then, they arrive sometime after 5:30 am and the people working will take these big silver carts into the back room of Rise ‘n Roll and put the donuts and baked goods out to the front where most people see them.”

Every week, Downs gets a new schedule of the days she works, usually three to four days during the week, some of which happens to be on school days. 

“I usually get off of school and go there,” Downs said. “I will go there, clean before customers start coming in, and before we close, I do some pre-closing things, and I mop. Then, I reset the store for the morning crew, and I count cash, and then, go home.” 

Her main role at Rise N Roll is to serve customers.

“We have baked goods for them [customers] and pack them and answer the questions,” Downs said. 

While working at Rise N Roll, she learned many things about the business world and basic life skills. 

“I learned some of the business practices like the hierarchy and their policies,” Downs said. “I learned leadership skills by having to train new workers and guide them on what to do. I learned to have more patience when dealing with unruly customers. Finally, I learned more about some of the inner workings of working for a company like the work ladder and certain bureaucracies.”

Although many people think working at a bakery would be enjoyable, there are some struggles. 

“There are some struggles involved with my job,” Downs said. “Cleaning yucky things, working after school when I am tired, standing for long shifts are all things that make my job just a little harder. However, the most challenging part of my job is the extremely rude customers. I am just trying to do my job and it makes it that much more difficult for me to do my job when the customer is being so rude over some yummy treats.”

After high school, Downs doesn’t necessarily want to bake as a career, but working there has benefited her for her future.

“I probably won’t do baking in the future,” Downs said.  “I like baking as a hobby. I am more passionate about animals and I would like to be a wildlife vet as a career. Working at Rise ‘n Roll has helped me by giving me experience, boosting my confidence when negotiating with bosses, and giving me an insight to the inner workings of a company.”