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A Program I Am Glad I Participated In!!!Mar 15 '00 Write an essay on this topic.The Federal Work-Study program is a great idea for a college student that needs extra funds to pay for college. Your first step is filling out your FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). If you are a first time student, you will need to obtain this form from the college you are planning to attend at their Financial Aid Office. If you are a returning student and have filled this application out before, a renewal application is sent to you usually in December. If you wish, this form can now be filled out over the internet. The web address for this is : http://www.fafsa.ed.gov . After you and your college receives the completed FAFSA from the government, your school will determine your Pell Grant eligibility. If you are still in need of financial aid to attend college, you can receive a Work-Study position at your college. At the college I attended, we were given choices of where Work-Study positions were available and got to pick our top three choices of where we would like to work on the campus. My college also had off-campus work-study positions (at least in the summer semester). These positions paid more than the standard on-campus positions. The on-campus positions are usually $5.15 an hour, the current minimum wage salary. The off-campus positions at my college were paying $6.00 an hour. When you are awarded a work-study position, you are granted a certain amount of hours to work during the semester. I do believe the maximum amount of hours per work is 10 hours. During the summer session, the maximum hours per week are 25. Work-study positions are great. They give you work experience, your supervisors can become great persons for job recommendations, and if there is nothing to do, you can study. Hence, the job title, Work-Study. What makes the position even better is if you can get a position on the campus in an area where you are interested in or studying for your degree in. My position at the college was in the medical laboratory. I thoroughly enjoyed it. When taking exams and I had to know materials needed for a particular lab session or the ingredients in a reagent, I knew the answer, while everyone else had to study harder. Kinda hard not to know the answer when I made the stuff myself and set up the lab for everyone else. In my position, I was also in a constant learning environment. I became sort of like a teacher’s assistant. I knew all the students in the program, either in a graduating class before mine or in the class behind me. I helped teach many of the labs, when the teachers were so busy with helping the other students. Most of the students even started asking me to help instead of asking the teachers. Yes, I know, many of those that know a lot of information about the work-study program, would point out that this is not part of the requirements for the work-study position. I know it is not. But, if I know the answer and being a student, I know how frustrating it is sometimes to talk to some teachers when they do not talk on “your level.” So, I would help the students understand, as most of them were my friends anyway. When studying for my certification exam, this added experience helped tremendously. And guess what? My added experience is also helping me in my job search at present. Because of my work-study experience, I know a lot more about ordering supplies, filling out purchase orders for those supplies, I know more information about the make-up of reagents and why each is present for that particular test, and the position taught me a lot about initiative. One other thing you should know about the work-study program, if you run out of hours for that particular semester, both you and your supervisor can appeal to the person in charge of the Work-Study program in the Financial Aid office at your college, if your supervisor feels that your help is needed more for that semester. If you still have some financial aid available and there are additional monies left over in the government’s allocation of funds for your college, chances are you can receive additional hours. I have received many additional hours in my years in my Work-Study position. Additionally, when you start you work-study position, know what is required of you from your supervisor and work out a work-schedule with them around your classes. If you are ever going to be late or you cannot make it in that day, let your supervisor know. It is no different than a regular job. Would you just not show up to work one day with no explanation to your boss? No!, or you would find yourself out of a job!!! Did the work-study program affect my studies? It sure did, but in a positive way. I spent my time studying when my duties were done. I studied in the middle of the day, and for me, that is a lot. I usually am the person who only studies at night. If you qualify for a work-study position, I would strongly encourage you to partake of this endeavor. You will be glad you did, especially if you can get a position in an area of interest to you.  |
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