Far from most student cashiering and waitering jobs, senior Tina Stork works at an Eau Claire group home for people diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Stork gives the residents their medicines, cooks and drives them places. The people in her group are pretty independent, she said, but sometimes they need a little direction.

Stork said it’s cool because she gets to hang out there like a friend and they have fun.

The group does have its quirks.

“Once this guy tried to stab my coworker with a butter knife,” Stork said. The man was subdued, but Stork couldn’t find the phone number for the sheriff.

In the end, it was the man with the butter knife who called the sheriff.

That has been the only incident of its kind since Stork started in January.

One woman said she is from Mars and her father is Teddy Roosevelt. And she’s part cat.

“She’ll have intellectual conversations about the Bible not making any sense at all,” Stork said.

But most days are really laid back, she said, and working at the group home has changed her perspective on relating with people.