Abdullah Hashimi

The act of making friends at Bowdoin usually begins in shared places like classes, affinity groups, clubs and sports. Usually, friendships form in these spaces with others who share common traits: their major, class year, athletic persuasion or intellectual interest. But there are areas of campus life where people who are not guaranteed to share any of these traits come together and form bonds: the on-campus job.

The Café stands as one particular on-campus job site that lends greatly to this convergence of students.

Prior to their shared shift at the Café this semester, Nate Berg ’27 and Alberto Garcia Vazquez ’28 had never crossed paths. The pair’s first interaction was when Berg was tasked with training Garcia Vazquez for his first day on the job.

“I’m [a] Café manager and it was my job to train him.… Training in the Café is pretty low-key. It’s just an excuse to bring students together and serve the broader community,” Berg said.

When not serving drinks during their shift, Berg and Garcia Vasquez often work on their respective class assignments. Berg, a government and legal studies major, and Garcia Vazquez, a prospective computer science and digital and computational studies coordinate major, would seldom share classes due to differing major requirements and academic interests. For them, working at the Café together serves as an intersection between their spheres of campus life.

“We kind of just lock in, like a parallel play type of situation. I show him what I’m working on sometimes, and I get to see what he’s up to,” Garcia Vasquez said.

Most people in entirely different parts of campus life don’t get the chance to witness each other’s work, but Berg and Garcia Vasquez are able to peek into each other’s lives through their shared shift.

“This guy, [Garcia Vasquez], is working a few jobs. He’s taking some crazy classes. He’s a hustler,” Berg said.

The Café is not the only place Garcia Vasquez works. He also works at the C-Store, an experience he notes as very different, particularly due to the lack of a fellow student working with him during his shift. He appreciates how his shift with Berg allows him to have more social interaction than when he is working alone at the C-Store.

“Working at the Café is a lot better because at the C-Store, I have the same script for every interaction with anyone buying something, but the Café is more dynamic, I get to talk with [Berg],” Garcia Vasquez said.

Berg and Garcia Vazquez also hail from opposite ends of the country: Berg from California and Garcia Vazquez from Georgia. While Berg and Garcia Vasquez don’t share similar origins, are not in the same class year and have not shared any classes or extracurriculars, they have found interests they can bond over—one being a shared love of Latin music.

“We bond over Latin music. We talk about dancing; we talk about cars. We’re always bumping salsa in here…. We’ll have some little dance parties with some other folks passing by. I love the interactions with people we have together,” Berg said.

Berg noted that while he and Garcia Vasquez met only this semester, the time they share during their shift is very relaxed and they get along well.

“We’re cracking jokes back here. It’s all very relaxed. We’re just very chill. We’re relaxed with each other. There’s no tension, no problems. We met on this shift, and training [Garcia Vasquez] was pretty nice. We got along quick,” Berg said.