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Work-Study Programs Help Students Defray Costs

Posted on: Saturday, 24 June 2006, 09:00 CDT

By Jennifer Burk, The Macon Telegraph, Ga.

Jun. 24--Chris Mitchell's job offers her a great deal of flexibility.

She works from 8 to 10:30 a.m., leaves for class at Georgia College & State University, then comes back around 3 p.m. and works until 5.

Mitchell, a rising senior at GC&SU, works in the financial aid office at her school, and the flexible hours are just one perk of her participation in the college's work-study program.

"We understand that these are students first, so their school work and studying come first," said Suzanne Pittman, director of financial aid and assistant vice president of enrollment at the college. "When they have a paper that's due or they have exams they have to study for, we'll be flexible and make sure they can do that."

College students participate in work-study programs for the flexible hours, convenient location and the additional financial help they receive.

Students may work in any number of positions, including secretarial work, being resident advisers in dormitories or helping professors with research.

Many colleges and universities have two types of work-study programs: federal and institutional.

Mitchell participates in an institutional program, which means the college pays her salary. In some schools, this program is based on financial need.

In the federal program, students must apply for work-study and are awarded federal funds based on need. Generally, institutions must match 25 percent of the federal funds that students are paid.

Nationally, about 800,000 students participated in federal work-study for the 2004-05 school year, according to the U.S. Department of Education. That year, students earned more than $1 billion dollars through the program.

A survey from the National Center for Educational Statistics shows that in 2000, about 9.3 percent of full-time undergraduates at four-year public institutions received financial aid via work-study, be it federal, state or institutional.

Wages for work-study begin at $5.15 per hour but can differ among schools and jobs. Students work until they earn the total amount of their financial aid award.

At GC&SU, about 200 students per year participate in federal work-study, and the college employs about 100 students, Pittman said. Students there are paid $5.50 per hour and are eligible for a yearly 25-cent-an-hour raise.

LanTanna Kinsey, a graduate student at Fort Valley State University, is one of 280 students who take part in work-study at FVSU.

Kinsey, who has been doing work-study since she was a sophomore, also works in the financial aid office, answering phones and greeting students. She has worked in a dormitory doing clerical work, and she spent one summer at Robins Air Force Base as part of the program.

Work-study "gives you experience working with any department on the campus," she said. "It also gives you extra income to help with your expenses.

At public institutions in Georgia, tuition last year ranged from $771 per semester at two-year schools to $1,819 per semester at research institutions. That's not including extra fees, books, housing or living expenses.

And the prices get steeper at private schools. Wesleyan College students paid $14,500 in tuition and fees last year, for example.

Soluzo Ekenta, a rising sophomore at Wesleyan, said she's participating in work-study this summer to help pay for school.

"It's quite expensive staying on campus," said Ekenta, who pays $80 per week to live on campus while she takes classes this summer.

Ekenta works in the school's Willet Memorial Library, making $5.15 per hour shelving books, checking in periodicals and staffing the front desk. She said the best part of her job is checking in about 30 periodicals each day because she gets to scan all of the latest headlines.

Kizzy Holmes, Wesleyan's assistant director of financial aid, said 14 students are participating in the college's work-study program this summer.

During the academic year, typically 60 to 65 students participate in the school's program and 45 participate in the federal one, she said.

Leigh Anne Gagnier, the library's public services librarian, said the school relies on student workers to do these jobs, so the librarians are free to work on different projects.

Work-study students also help a department's budget. Because the program is run through the financial aid office, the library doesn't have to pay the students through its budget, as it would if it hired a nonstudent, Gagnier said.

Ekenta said working in the library is good experience but may not be realistic because everyone is nice, and she isn't exposed to "angry, uncooperative people."

Of course, she added, she doesn't really want that.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Macon Telegraph, Ga.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Macon Telegraph (Macon, Ga.)

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