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You Get Out What You Put InApr 14 '01 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line Work study can be very valuable, not to mention profitable. When I first came to college, I didn't qualify for much financial aid. My parents were in that magic income bracket where they didn't make enough money to actually pay my way through school but they made too much to qualify me for grants and loans. I worked part-time at a grocery store, and that was okay, but I wasn't satisfied, and neither was my boss. You see, while many people who worked there put in a lot of their energy, I didn't. I had no intention of spending my whole life bagging groceries, so of course my job wasn't my number-one priority. School was, and partying, and being social...pretty much anything that didn't involve work. Something Changed I took five years off from college and returned at age 25. When I applied for financial aid, something good actually happened. It turned out that I was old enough that I didn't have to claim any of my parents' income in my forms. Suddenly, I was being offered tons of money and a work-study position. I didn't take it, since I had a part-time job at a local convenience store. I was told I couldn't do my homework at the store, and I had shifts that began right after my classes let out. The one positive part about having a part-time job outside of college was that I could work as many hours as I could fit into my schedule. One spring saw me turning in my financial aid packet on time. When I got my reward-papers back from my university, I saw that I'd qualified for a sizeable work-study package. Since I'd left my other job, I decided to take a work-study position. I applied at various jobs during the "work-study job fair," including one at the library, one at our computer lab, and one in the Women's Studies Center. The WSC called me back first and offered me a job, and I took it. Thus began my two-and-a-half year position. What is Work-Study? Work-study is a program that gives colleges and university funds to employ students. The idea is to give students financial aid that they work for. There are two basic types of work-study that I know of, and they are federal and school. Federal work-study is, as the name suggests, federally funded. School work-study is paid for out of a university or college's funds. At my school, the University of Maine at Farmington, we call the school-funded program "work initiative" and people don't have to qualify for work-study to get a work initiative job. As a matter of fact, work initiative positions give preference to students who don't qualify for work-study. Some work-study jobs allow you to do your homework while you work. Mine did not--that is, unless my boss wasn't present, or unless I was finishing a paper due in one of her classes. Work-study jobs have flexible schedules, to allow students to attend class and not have to rush right to work or from work, and employers tend to be much more understanding when student workers call in sick so they can write papers. The only problem I've had with work-study is the way being paid works. I was awarded a set amount of money for the year. I was only allowed to earn that money, and when it was gone, it was gone. With a regular part-time job, I could earn as much as I wanted to, if I felt like working an extra shift here and there. What you can get out of this Some students treat their work-study jobs as a place to kill time and earn some financial aid money. However, as I've found, you get out of a w-s job what you put into it. For example, some people I worked with were happy answering the phone, filing, keeping our office neat, and running basic errands. However, I started out doing the basic clerical work and ended up designing and maintaining the web-site, doing a lot of graphic design, co-editing a magazine, helping to organize and run a conference, attending a leadership institute, and much more that looks great on a resume and has given me a lot of very important and necessary skills for the future. I do think that taking a work-study job, if you're offered one, is a good idea. You can earn extra money and you can open up the opportunity to learn new and exciting things about whatever department you end up with. Or, you could buy yourself some more study time. Whatever the case, I do recommend work-study wholeheartedly.  |
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