On the way: Reggie Jenkins

Approaching 8 a.m. each day, cars start to line up along the Laboratory Schools tennis courts. As bleary-eyed students rush toward Kenwood Mall from Kenwood Avenue and 58th Street, security guard Reggie Jenkins keeps the intersection safe. Wearing a neon vest, he makes sure busy parents yield for kids to cross the street. 

Mr. Jenkins, 23, stands at the intersection from 7-11 a.m. and 2-6 p.m., leaving only to get an omelet at The Original Pancake House at 47th Street for lunch. He started last week after quitting his former job at Amazon. 

These hours allow him to simultaneously be a student at the University of Illinois at Chicago. After he graduates in 2026, he hopes to pursue a career as a middle school teacher, because he thinks students learn the most in grades six to eight. 

Mr. Jenkins’ career choice comes from his experiences helping his nieces and nephew—three middle schoolers and one high school senior—with school work. 

Mr. Jenkin’s favorite subject, and the subject he thinks is important for students to learn, is science. 

“If you can think of something, science is most likely in it,” Mr. Jenkins said. “You will have to go through that and math to pretty much do anything special in this world.”

Despite the additional hours and responsibility of being a security guard, Mr. Jenkins said balancing between school and work has been pretty simple. The course registration system at UIC affords him the freedom to create his own schedule. He is more free during periods of distance learning when he only needs to log onto his computer to join class. 

He joked that virtual classes feel less important, and he is more prone to skipping them. But in the mornings at Lab, he makes sure all students get to class. 

“As long as you can get to where you’re going safely, I’m good,” Mr. Jenkins said.