By Richard Zagrzecki
When Lauren Klich stumbled upon an announcement for a part-time job as a bike program assistant at the University of Houston, it seemed too good to be true.
After all, the junior advertising major already was riding her bicycle to campus almost every day from her apartment in the Heights – a trek of close to 40 minutes. She was involved in several local riding organizations and was so passionate about bicycling that she even gave her bike a name – Lola.
“I was thinking this was the perfect job for me, so I went right home that night and rewrote my resume,” she said.
It’s been about a month and a half now since she was offered and accepted the job, which is a student worker position within the Office of Sustainability. As she immerses herself in her new job duties, she’s already eyeing several ideas and projects she’d like to see become a reality.
“One of my goals is to implement a bike-sharing program on campus. I would also really like to see something like a student run bike co-op that could just take off and grow here at UH,” Klich said.
More bike lanes in and around campus, additional bike racks and an overall friendlier campus biking environment are other initiatives she’d like to tackle.
A native of Chicago, Klich moved to the Houston area when she was a freshman in high school. After graduating from Kingwood High, she moved to Austin, where she attended Austin Community College. Three and a half years later, she moved back to Houston and started working at a design firm with her older sister.
Around the Christmas holidays in 2013, she received a holiday bonus that she decided to use to buy herself a bicycle. Although she had ridden bikes as a child, it had been awhile since she had hopped on one. Buying the bike turned out to be a wise move, as she soon discovered she had a love of riding.
Not long afterward, she decided to return to school. She applied for and was accepted into the University of Houston this past fall semester. Between classes and working as the bike program assistant, she also finds time to work two other part-time jobs, including being a barista at a coffee shop in the Heights.
Once she graduates from UH – which at this point is estimated to be in the spring of 2016 – she would like to move to Costa Rica for at least a year and live and work on a coffee farm.
“I’d love to be able to just submerge myself in a culture I don’t know and become fluent in the language,” she said. “I would really love to live a simple life for a while in the middle of nowhere.”
As a self-proclaimed goofball, she also has another dream she’s already started pursuing – comedy.
“I know a lot of people who are going into the world of comedy and I would like to see myself go there,” she said. “My friend and I are trying to start up a comedy podcast together. We’ve also been talking about taking some improv classes and joining an improv group.”