Student Employment Site-Visit Initiative Update

The Student Employment Team piloted a Site-Visit Initiative in the Fall of 2022. Now in 2024, the team has conducted over 12 visits, seven of which took place in the 23-24 AY. The goal of the initiative was to connect with our off-campus Federal Work-Study (FWS) Partners to better understand how we can improve our partnership and employment/community engagement opportunities, to learn more about our FWS partner organizations, and to document/observe FWS Student Employees at their sites. We have been able to gain further insight into the benefits of the program from the perspective of the FWS off-campus employer. Many employers said they enjoy our program so much that they often recommend it to other eligible employers. Our partners have also mentioned the value of the affordability it brings. Many have found that the Student Employment Manager, Kristina Rittel, was extremely helpful in her webinar. And, of course, many raved about their excellent student employees. The Student Employment Team has thoroughly enjoyed conducting site visits and getting to know our FWS Partners! We have incredible partnerships and hope to continually expand our Off-Campus FWS program! The Student Employment Team is consistently working to ensure the best possible opportunities for students and employers by constantly reviewing our projects, programs, and processes. Recently, the team has been in the process of reassessing our site-visit program to see how we can further benefit our partners and students, and after further reflection, we decided to implement hybrid site visits and are currently exploring the opportunity to hear from students themselves. As we continue to bring on more partners, some of those new organizations operate entirely online. By implementing this option, we can receive additional feedback on their organization and the work that our student employees do remotely. We are so excited to move in this new direction towards enhancing student success, and we could not have done it without the support of our great partners and our amazing Student Employment Team!