The Community Work-Study Program, as it involves our office, began in 2005 with a new partnership between the Office of Financial Aid and the Office for Community Involvement.  This partnership revolved around the goals of assisting non-profit employers in finding qualified work-study staff to fill their positions, and educating more students to the rewards and benefits of taking jobs with community-based organizations.

Since starting this program OCI has worked to help advertise positions with community organizations both at the Financial Aid office and in academic departments where students pursuing certain disciplines might find certain jobs more applicable to them.  In addition, we began surveying all work-study students annually to ascertain what they look for in a position, how they get to their jobs, whether they are on campus or off campus, how well things are working with their current employers, and what aspects of the work-study program they wish they understood better.  In 2006 a similar survey was administered to community-based employers and we have used the results of these survey each year to strategize how better to prepare students and employers for successful experiences. 

Also in partnership with Financial Aid we have hosted information sessions with non-profit leaders interested in learning more about work-study in hopes of expanding the pool of meaningful community based positions.  This work continues with OCI taking responsibility to advertise these positions and Financial Aid giving us access to employers and employees for annual surveys.  An advisory group meets monthly during the school year to collaborate on the information session and to brainstorm new approaches to building successful relations between MSU and the Bozeman area non-profit community.

Return to regular view	Text-only	Updated: 4/29/08