For Emily Jane MacKillop, school days consist of more than just classes and homework. As a barista and assistant manager at Tama Café — yes, it's really called Tama Café, not Tama Tea — she puts in about 38 hours of work a week in addition to attending and studying for her classes.
MacKillop is a junior dramatic arts and religious studies major who has worked at Tama Café for the past 10 months.
“I was a patron here since the day they opened,” she said. “I came in every day because I just loved the atmosphere, and then the general manager at the time was like, You’re in here all the time. You should get a job,’ and I was like, ‘I can start Friday.’”
A typical day for MacKillop begins at 6:30 a.m. when she starts her opening shift. She works until 8:30 a.m., when she leaves for classes. She typically returns to work around 5:30 p.m. and gets home at 9:30 p.m.
“It’s a lot of figuring out what to prioritize as far as the success of the café and my success in school — just kind of figuring out when to be a student and when to be a manager,” she said.
MacKillop starts her shift by restocking materials, starting the drip tea and boba, preparing food for the day and making kegs of tea. Her job doesn’t just consist of cleaning and prep work, though — it also allows for creative expression.
“I really like doing latte art,” she said. “When I first started, I had no idea how to do latte art, and then over winter break we were so dead that we had a bunch of milk that was about to expire and we couldn’t use it. So another barista and myself just spent three or four hours of our shift just doing latte art, or attempting to do latte art.”
MacKillop is not sure yet what she wants her career to be, but she is seriously considering opening her own café in the future. She said her experience working at Tama Café has influenced this dream and given her the skills she needs to pursue it.
“There’s so much that I would take with me,” she said. “A lot of things about training and the little things you think you know how to do. And a lot of interpersonal skills.”
