Students benefit from campus jobs

While keeping good grades in college is a must, getting a job and pursuing an internship are among the many goals of students on campus. Finding a job anywhere is a very competitive process and requires commitment, time and skill.

To fulfill these needs, GCSU offers a variety of on-campus jobs. Students can apply for student assistant positions or Federal Work Study positions. Graduate assistant positions are also available for those eligible.

Currently, there are 299 students serving in student assistant positions and 79 students holding work study positions according to Human Resources. There are also 138 students holding graduate assistant jobs.

Alissa Northrup, a senior psychology major, is a student worker at the Registrar’s Office.

“It’s convenient working on-campus because studies do show that students having an on-campus job have higher GPA’s than those who have off-campus jobs,” Northrup said.

Students can apply for on-campus jobs at www.gcsujobs.com. Both student assistant and work study positions are located on the Web site.

Student assistant jobs are typically applied for through the specific department or office of the university and hiring is left up to the discretion of the office. Federal Work Study is a program whereby the United States government allocates funds to a university to award qualifying students according to federal regulations and the GCSU Financial Aid Office policy.

To qualify for work study, students must be enrolled at least half time (six hours for undergraduate and five hours for graduate) and must apply through the financial aid application process. Once the Financial Aid Office has determined the need of the student, students are awarded a specific amount for the year, which is divided evenly between fall and spring semesters.

According to Beth Gamble, student employment coordinator, “The Financial Aid Office administers only the Federal Work Study program.”

Once a student has applied for the work study program, the employment coordinator for the department reviews the online applications and contacts the applicants to arrange an appointment for an interview. Once the interview process is complete and the selection has been made, the employment coordinator notifies the student employment coordinator in the Financial Aid Office to verify eligibility.

Another one of the perks of having an on-campus job is the ability to work around students’ class schedules.

Jordan Bullinger, who has worked three years at the Registrar’s Office, said, “ The people I work with are really laid back and are really understanding about academics coming first.”

There are many opportunities outside of GCSU to find jobs but the flexibility of a student assistant or work study job can sometimes make the latter two options more appealing to students.

“Off campus jobs are way harder to keep while being in school because of scheduling conflicts and pressure to do well,” Lauryn Foster, sophomore psychology major, said.

While having a job in college gives experience and opportunities to finding jobs out of college, it is also important to start putting together a resume.

Jennifer Cash, assistant director of the Career Center, gives advice to students on a daily basis.

“Students should develop their resumes in their freshman year,” Cash said. “When creating your freshman resume, you can include your education, leadership, community service, work experience, computer skills, honors and awards received while in high school.”

Creating a resume comes with finding an internship, which is required for a lot of majors.

“The internship process search is not really that different than job searching,” Cash said. “Therefore, you probably want to start your internship search 6-9 months prior to your hired desire date.”

When beginning the internship process, it is also useful to contact Michelle Berg who is the internship coordinator. She assists students when beginning the search of an internship, staying on track and answering questions regarding the internship process.

Posted by Sophie Singer on Mar 20 2010. Filed under Focus On. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry