On-Campus Jobs

Today's topic, by email request: Workstudy Jobs on campus.

Reader email:

Hey! I'm going to be in the SFS next year and found your blog really helpful, especially the stuff about job-searching on campus. how soon would you recommend looking for a job on campus; like, within a week of orientation?

The short answer? I'd start now.

For this post, I'm going to back up a bit though, so everyone can get caught up to speed on what a work study job is.

A work study is basically an award from the federal government, in which the government agrees to reimburse / pay a portion of a student's wages as a part of their financial aid plan. As a result, a work study essentially results in saying that the federal government will pay wages for that student's work through the amount given. Here are a few things that are not necessarily clear on paper:

1. You are not guaranteed, given, or assigned a position. It is up to you to find a position which qualifies, obtain said position, and work to that amount.

2. You are not guaranteed the amount listed. It simply means that your employer will be paid by the federal government up to that amount listed if you work enough time for that amount, but no more. As a result, some jobs may allow you to work *only* to that amount.

What's also not clear is how a student is supposed to go about finding a work-study job. Here's the hints and tips I have for you:

Hoyaworks

This link will get you to the Georgetown Student Employment portal. Because it's during the summer, many jobs which will become available may not yet be posted. However, I'll warn you ahead of time that many of the jobs listed will seem silly (comic book research assistant? Awesome!) but you wont be qualified (no wait, seriously?), while others will just be over your head (quantum researching psycho-what?), and most will just not be up your alley (...house cleaning?...). This is why I'm going to give you a couple of other avenues to pursue.

Avenue One: Swipe guard.

It's a really easy job, in which you sit at a desk, work, and occasionally slide people's cards at the entrance to buildings. This is a very easy way to get your homework done and get paid. To apply, check out this site.

Avenue Two: Housing Ops / RHO assistant.

This is what I do. RHO assistants handle incoming packages for students, handle the keys for lock-outs (no worries, those of you in New South will become very very familiar with the term lock-out), and you do a lot of sitting. Depending on what time and what RHO you work in, you may have a somewhat busy job, or you may have nothing to do besides homework. I highly recommend this position. Your work is more regular than being a swipe guard, and you get to work with other people.

I'm not a manager, so I can't just hire you (heck, I have to see if my manager is working again for next year, so I don't have to try to find a new job...) and most of these positions get given to upperclassmen (read:RHO manager's friends)*. However, if you are interested in taking up the position, contact me, and I can send your resume / email to some managers and get you the email for the housing coordiantor. This might sound like a lot of work, but it's really not.

*note: don't kill me, I swear I slipped in by being regularly hired!

Avenue Three: CSJ.

This section was written by Hui Min Cao, who works with DCSP and the CSJ, described below:

The Center for Social Justice offers three director run (full time staff) programs which take work study students. These three tutoring/mentoring programs target various wards and demographics in the D.C. metro area. Most work study students will be paid $9:50 as their starting wage with increases in wage every few semesters.

DC Schools Project (DCSP): Tutoring/mentoring program targeted at English as Second Language learners. DCSP works in a wide range of neighborhoods and tutor people of all ages. There are several different sections in this program: one to one mentoring programs for k-12 students in their homes; after school literacy/homework help programs in elementary, middle, and high schools; and adult ESL programs for Georgetown staff and those in the DC Metro community. Programs run from Mondays through Saturdays for various sections. (Note: Since I am a coordinator for this program I will be happy to talk to students who have additional questions. My email is hmc42@georgetown.edu.)

More info

DC Reads: Tutoring/mentoring program targeted at third grade literacy in Ward Seven. The goal of DC Reads is to help their students catch up to their proper reading level and programs run in seven different elementary schools. Programs run from Mondays through Saturdays for various sections.

More

After School Kids (ASK): Mentoring program targeted at court-involved youth in the DC metro area. These kids come to campus and learn about street law at the law center.

Avenue Four: LAU. I'll update this section as soon as I find out how to get a job with the library.

Avenue Five: UIS.

The UIS student help desk helps with tech problems on campus. They have a desk in St. Mary's hall. If you have some tech skills, this might be a good bet for you. More info.

Avenue Six: The Corp. The corp is a major GU institution. I'm waiting on an article from a corp affiliate, but for the mean time, you can check out this information on Georgetown's biggest coffee-supplying student-run organization. For more info, check out what Wikipedia has to say.

Ok, so there are probably a lot of other places to work on campus, but this list rounds out the most common positions held by students, and they all represent jobs that are not shown on the hoyaworks website. Hopefully there will be a student employment workshop hosted this year as there was last year, and if I hear anything about one, I'll keep you posted.

April