Walk into Mountain View’s Best Buy, and you’re bound to see countless gadgets and other electronics. And you may even spot one of their youngest employees, Ethan Grammer (12), helping customers with their cell phones or laptops.

Ethan has been working seriously since he was twelve years old. Although he was never obligated to do so, after filming his brother’s soccer games turned into a job at a local TV station, Ethan realized that he could find fulfillment through employment.

“It was just kind of something that I fell into and started loving,” Ethan said.

As a member of Best Buy’s “Geek Squad,” Ethan fixes customers’ devices, diagnoses electronics and even installs home technological systems.

“Since I was ten years old, I wanted to work with computers, so as I started working, I realized I need to have that social interaction with people,” Ethan said “The idea of sitting behind a computer all day just makes me think I’ll be bored my entire life.”

While some Harker students work intermittently throughout the year, Ethan spends a full 20 hours per week at his job. As a Geek Squad agent, he takes on responsibilities unknown for most high schoolers. To English teacher Christopher Hurshman, Ethan’s maturity shows.

“He has always seemed remarkably adult and responsible,” Mr. Hurshman said. “That has been demonstrated in the fact that he does balance his school responsibilities with a pretty heavy workload.”

At Best Buy, Ethan is one of the few employees working more for fun than for finances. Many of his older coworkers depend heavily on the job, a fact that helps Ethan put his own life in perspective.

“[One of my coworkers is] 30 years old, he rents a room out in Mountain View and he works three jobs, so it’s an eye-opening experience to see that he is able to maintain that positive mentality all throughout work,” Ethan said. “It’s interesting to see the different aspects of people’s lives versus us here at Harker, where people generally have it pretty well-off, comparatively.”

Another experience that helps him maintain an objective outlook? His cross-country move from Massachusetts to California as an incoming sophomore, marking a transition from a public school in the East Coast to a private school in Silicon Valley.

“The diversity here, not just at Harker, is crazy — much, much more than what I experienced in my old school,” he said. “It was a small town in Massachusetts and everybody knew each other. The diversity here is really awesome to see, and everybody gets along with different people.”

Another of Ethan’s friends, Mitchell Kole (12), has observed that Ethan’s social life at Harker mirrors his affinity for diverse crowds.

“He’s pretty well-rounded. He’s friends with a lot of different types of people; he’s definitely part of many different social groups.” Mitchell said.

Ethan’s neighbor from Massachusetts, Peter Kitsakos, called him a “generous” and “reliable” person.

“Ethan’s always been interested in everyone,” Peter said. “He’s always trying to branch out and be friends with everybody.”