By Erika Moreno / Delta Staff Writer

The student employment program is built to assist students in meeting their financial obligations while providing hands on career building opportunities.

To be able to do work study you must live on campus and be granted student employment through the admissions process, said Tabatha Anderson,the student coordinator accounting assistant for Missouri Valley College.

“We have between 250-275 work study employees at this time,” she said. “We began the year with over 600 open work study positions, with 200 of those being in Fresh Ideas (cafeteria).”

The jobs are assigned on a first-come-first-serve basis. Applications are processed as they go. The students are expected to report to their assigned supervisor for their schedules to be made during the first week of classes. If they don’t attend during the first week of school, that can result in being transferred to another area of work or even terminated from work. The supervisors for work study are required to not schedule students while they have class or practice. 

On campus jobs mostly pay minimum wage. With work study students can earn up to $935 per semester. Anderson said that she still has students coming into her office checking to see if they are eligible for work study and they also fill out applications. 

Diane Yadrich is the supervisor for work study at the Malcom fitness center. She has about 40 to 45 work study employees. On each shift she has a maximum of three workers as well as a supervisor. At the beginning of the semester, the students who work for Yadrich are able to pick the schedule that works for them and a lot actually prefer later shifts. 

Amaijah Ibrahim does work study for her dance teacher, Janie Morgan. Ibrahim does work such as cleaning the dance studio, cleaning the outer part of Morgan’s office. She also edits the costume catalog, post things on the dance social media, and run errands for her teacher. 

Some students take advantage of the benefits that they can have by having a job. Not only do they have extra money, but some of them learn life lessons.

Sarah Spiers does work study for Bathsheba Love in the library. She started doing work study in Fall 2017. When she works she does light work like cleaning, shelving books, helping students with printing issues, helping students check out books or find books, and sometimes when it is really slow, she can get some homework done.

“It helps me learn to be a little more responsible, as in knowing I have a job to attend too, as well as learning time management, as in making sure I have things done before I clock into work” Spiers said.

Bathsheba Love is a librarian at Missouri Valley College and she is the supervisor for students who work at the Murrell Library. Love has close to 30 work study students this semester.

“This year we’ve had a big influx,” Love said. “We went from maybe having almost 15 last year to almost 30 this year. So I think the students this year have really understood that this is a great way to make some extra cash.”