Working hard for the money

Working is part of college life for some students who need extra money to pay the price tag university comes with. However, it can turn into a difficult feat when students must balance their school schedule with their work schedule. One employment option that can relieve students of this balancing act are on-campus jobs.There are two different types of on-campus jobs a student can look into. One option is the Federal Work-Study Program. This program provides jobs for students in financial need that qualify. According to Cathy Crawley, director of financial aid, students who are eligible for Federal Work-Study are evaluated after completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. If students qualify, they are offered an opportunity to participate in the program. According to the Federal Student Aid website, students qualify for Federal Work-Study if they are considered to be in financial need and are at least enrolled for six hours.

“There is not an unlimited amount of money allotted from the Department of Education for this, so the spots are first come first serve,” Crawley said.

There are around 100 spots in the Federal Work-Study Program, distributed throughout different departments, which are open to students in need, according to Crawley.

Another option that students who don’t qualify for Federal Work-Study, is working through Georgia College’s student work program. This program is not affiliated with Federal Work-Study, and there are two separate budgets for each program. Student employment is available at numerous departments around campus, two examples are the Library and Instructional Technology Center and the Wellness and Recreation Center.

The only setback to on-campus employment is students are only allowed to work a certain amount of hours a week. These restrictions might make living off of these salaries alone close to impossible.

Laura Lowndes, senior English major and access service student assistant at the LITC, has found this job to be an ideal option. Lowndes says she couldn’t live off of her library salary alone, because she is only allowed to work 19.5 hours a week, which is the maximum amount of hours a student workercan have, and she makes $7.25, minimum wage, an hour.

“It’s a federal requirement that says we can’t work more than that because it is state-funded and we can’t work anymore than that and go to school,” Lowndes said.

Although she may not be able to work enough hours to live off of without other means of compensation, Lowndes says there are great benefits to working for Georgia College.

“Working on campus is really convenient. It’s super easy to go to class and just walk across the street. Our boss is really good about working with our classes. Like if something comes up with one of our classes, like a big test, or we’re stressed out or whatever, we can rearrange our shifts really easily…they’re really good about that,” Lowndes said. “Our shifts are really short because we are working around classes. Like in the morning, I work two hours. My longest shift is four hours.”

Robby Campbell, sophomore management and marketing major, is a member service representative at the Wellness and Recreation Center.

“I couldn’t live off of my salary without my student loans, but the amount of money I do make is perfect for buying groceries every month, and I usually have a little left over, so it basically keeps me afloat,” Campbell said.

Although the salary may not be enough to live off of, most people agree the flexibility of the jobs supplement this downfall.

Campbell works 10 hours a week in two hour shifts because it’s all his schedule will allow, which he said GC is very accommodating with.

Sophomore marketing major Chloe Frew agreed that her job as a media lab assistant in the LITC is accommodating to her schedule.

“My supervisors are super flexible and understanding to our time. Also, my coworkers are amazing. We are always able to trade shifts without much of a problem at all,” Frew said.

Anthony Bennett, senior marketing major, also works as a media lab assistant in the LITC, and agrees that on-campus jobs are worth having.

“It’s on-campus, close to my apartment, and very convenient to my school schedule.”

Posted by Kat Wardell on Feb 2 2012. Filed under Lead stories, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.