Written by Eli Dean // Photo by Macy Cox
Midnight Oil (MO) is in a transition period behind the scenes as the coffee shop welcomes two new managers on staff. Hannah Carpenter and Sarah Fraser are looking to work as a team to improve the MO experience for students and the rest of the community.
“I wanted to do something that had more of a community focus and help to create something special,” Carpenter said. “It’s been a staple in the Searcy community, and I want it to be around for as long as it can be.”
Back when Fraser was a Harding student, she worked part-time at MO, and she said it’s been a great feeling going back to that time in her life as she gets acclimated to being a manager.
“It’s nice to think that we are contributing to something in a positive way,” Fraser said. “Getting to know the people here has been great so far. I remember when I worked here as a student and the daily interactions with people and seeing the same people from [when I started] is fun.”
One focus both of the new managers have is making MO a more inclusive place for the community to come together with the student body, something that Carpenter admits can be a struggle sometimes.
“Over the years, Midnight Oil has kind of been looked at by the community as a Harding place,” Carpenter said. “As long as I’ve lived here, there’s been this disconnect within the community between Harding and Searcy. I would love MO to not be something that is just associated with Harding but be more of a community space for people to enjoy.”
Senior student worker Hannah Atkins has enjoyed her time working at MO and said it has been a great experience so far.
“I started working at MO the summer after my first year at Harding,” Atkins said. “I saw how much fun MO was and I had some experience working at Starbucks at my past college, so I applied and since then it’s been a great place to work.”
Since MO opened in 1997, the goal has been to provide quick and easily accessible service to Harding students while also giving the community a chance to interact with students on a daily basis, and Carpenter wants that mission to continue for years to come.
“The charm is there, but I feel like sometimes it needs to be cranked up a notch,” Carpenter said. “We want people to hopefully schedule their mornings around stopping in for a few minutes because they know the atmosphere and know that it isn’t this huge corporate conglomerate and that they are cared for here and just have an overall sense of belonging.”
