The two biggest concerns for college students are having money and getting good grades. Getting a job is a good way for college students to earn money for rent, spending money, food and all other needs. There are many businesses around campus that will hire college students, but having an on-campus job is easier when it comes to worrying about transportation. 

Having an on-campus job helps you network with fellow NIU students and get more familiar with life on campus. Money doesn’t always come easily in college, and NIU offering extra financial aid for a work study job is a very generous thing to do. 

John Acardo, senior associate vice president and chief human resources officer, explained that the work-study program is a very important part of NIU. 

“The work study program gives students great opportunities to get work experience while trying to earn a degree,” Acardo said.

The federal work-study grant is part of students’ financial aid packages and allows students to earn money for working an on-campus job. The FWS (Federal Work Study) is awarded based on students’ demonstrated financial need. Submitting the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) is the first step towards becoming work-study eligible. 

The big misconception about the work-study grant is that it’s guaranteed. No, you have to earn the money through getting a part-time job. The usual range is from $2,000 to $5,000. The actual amount will be determined by the students’ FAFSA. 

You receive the money from the work-study jobs the same way you would receive payment from any job: In the form of a paycheck. In my personal experience with working at work-study eligible jobs, I had to either keep track of my timesheet and log my hours or sign up for direct deposit. Either way, I was allowed complete freedom with how I spent my money. What I typically do is take a portion of my paychecks and save it aside to pay off student loans. 

Huskies Get Hired is NIU’s job search platform, where students can find jobs while in school and after graduation. However, since the majority of these jobs are tailored for after graduation, it makes earning money while you are still a college student much harder. 

Work-study jobs aren’t offered to just a select group of students. Work-study jobs are offered to NIU students that are currently enrolled and are eligible to receive the work-study grant as a part of their financial aid package. There are 2,100 students employed on campus with 350 students being work-study eligible, which is just under 17% of the students employed on campus on a monthly average, according to Acardo. 

Another issue that NIU has with work-study jobs is the lack of publicity that some jobs get. There are many work study jobs at NIU that are unknown to many students. For example, the Northern Star is a job that would qualify for work study. I did not know that until I was speaking with other staff members in the office. I didn’t even know that the place I am interning at was work-study eligible. 

Acardo said there is ongoing communication to address the lack of publicity that some work-study jobs get. He also mentioned how it is up to the different departments within NIU to post jobs on Huskies Get Hired. Different departments sometimes post job opportunities on their official pages within the NIU website, something students should be aware of.  

There are steps that can be taken to improve work-study jobs at NIU. 

The first step would be to offer work-study jobs for each major and each school, such as jobs for the College of Business, College of Liberal Arts and so on. Most jobs that college students have are not related to their majors or desired career fields. This might deter students from applying for the jobs currently offered. Allowing major-specific jobs to be offered will make it more likely for students to apply for these jobs and will help students get experience working in their desired careers. 

The second step would be to actually advertise work-study jobs around campus, whether it be in digital form such as through Huskies Get Hired or a school-wide email, or in physical form through flyers and posters. 

During my orientation, Huskies Get Hired was one of the biggest selling points the speaker was going over when talking about NIU. However, the database is more focused on post-education jobs and the work-study jobs aren’t posted very much. 

Another way to accomplish this would be to have an hourly target during the semester. If a student works a certain number of hours, they get a portion of the work-study grant put as credit toward their student debt. One way to do this would be to separate or divy up the hours to before and after break, whether it be for the winter or for the spring. 

For example, my internship at the Northern Star requires me to have 120 hours spent at the Northern Star office. If I set a deadline to hit 80 hours before spring break, then I could get a reward of sorts for accomplishing this. 

There are many work-study jobs offered at NIU. However, the amount of publicity that these jobs get is very underwhelming. 

“We (NIU) could always do better with promoting jobs,” Acardo said. 

NIU needs to do a better job at letting students, work-study eligible or not, know that there are jobs hiring on campus where they can earn money. This would increase student employment numbers and would then increase the amount of work-study grant money being disbursed.