Hiring Students on Work-Study?

Has anyone hired Work-Study students at their organizations? If so, what was your experience like? Would you do it again?

I'm not sure what you mean by "work-study" -- do you mean involving students for a set amount of time, and in return, they receive a grade from their university/college, or, money?

I have involved many students for set periods of time, in return for my signing off on their participation for a university or college class. I didn't assign the grade, merely provided information and let the professor decide as he or she liked.

I always let the student know that I'm going to be honest in his or her evaluation to his professor, particularly about number of hours contributed, quality and type of tasks completed, and how I saw the student apply his or her skills and learn new ones. That said, I also let them know that mistakes, misteps and questions are part of the experience, and that I do not expect the student to be perfect.

I tend to give students that ask lots of questions and show real enthusiasm and commitment better evaluations than those who show up, complete the requested task, and then leave (and I tell them this).

And all that said -- I've had really, really positive experiences working with such students.

But I'm not sure if this is even what you were looking for...

Work-study is a form of financial aid for college students. If a student works for a nonprofit organization, the nonprofit can be reimbursed 75 percent of the student's salary.

Hmm who gives the 75 %

The college or university reimburses the NPO with funding from the federal government. For more information see the TechSoup article at http://www.techsoup.org/articlepage.cfm?ArticleId=496&topicid=11

Dear Moderators,

This thread may be in the wrong forum. The subject is about hiring students, not volunteers. The article related to the subject is in technology planning; perhaps the thread should be in the same forum.

That's why I asked early on if this was about paid students or unpaid students. Sometimes, people are under the impression that by calling someone a "work study" or "intern" makes that someone no longer a volunteer, even if the person is not paid.

It's like when I ask an organization how many volunteers they have and they say no. "Don't you have a board of directors?" "Oh, yes, but they aren't really volunteers -- they are board members!"

We have used "work study intern" students from Yale University for a number of years. Paying only 25% of the students' salaries (which Yale bills to us at the end of each semester) allows our limited budget to provide staff support. The students provide invaluable assistance to our staff; they are bright, energetic and willing to do almost any task. Without their assistance, many projects would lag behind.

The students become very close to us - many are with us for 2 or 3 years until graduation - and quite a few of "my kids" stay in touch after they leave Yale to let me know how their careers or graduate studies are progressing. We also utilize their expertise to "recruit" new work study students at the beginning of each semester (if needed).

We also utilize Legal interns on either the same type of payment through their school, or working for class credit, or volunteering to further their experience and exposure to our envrionmental activities.

Also, whenever we are approached by any individual expressing an interest in volunteering to assist CFE in a particular cause, becomming reacquainted with a working atmosphere, or other reasons, we gladly utilize their talents for staff support if it is determined they are truly able to make a "time commitment". We have even had volunteers become paid staff members after a period of time.

We could not function nearly as well as we do without our work study students, legal interns and volunteers. The Federal Work Study Program is an absolute must for any nonprofit as far as I am concerned.

Linda R. Justice, Office Manager
Connecticut Fund for the Environment