Working on campus: A beneficial option
Money is a universal issue for students, but UWT has several options for enriching on-campus employment.
It’s never easy to juggle work and school, especially here in higher education where the curriculum is more intense and more demanding of your attention, time, and mental power. Not everyone is fortunate enough to be able to choose between having a job or attending school, and that can lead to a plethora of struggles, unfortunate decisions, and potential risks to the body and mind.
Luckily, there are options that exist that can make things a bit easier, even if they are not perfect. One such option, and one that many students undertake, is the option to find employment on campus. Even luckier, UW Tacoma has many options available for students of all sorts, and there are plenty of benefits to gain from campus employment.
Even outside of the main benefit, being able to work and earn money without having to travel long distances before and after classes makes the option even more appealing. Students can find a job that correlates with their field of study, being able to not only grow skills in that area but meet and connect with fellow students or potential mentors in that same area. Students could also try a job in a field that they hadn’t planned on exploring, and learn more about the options available to them after graduation.
Students could also find a job outside of their expected field to grow a wider net of skills and connections, learning more about their abilities, and developing a more diverse portfolio of talents along the way. This can help grow not only educational skills but general workforce skills like time management or organizational skills.
Even outside of skill-related benefits, campus employment can simply provide a less stressful work environment, with a more fluid schedule for class accommodation. It can give a sense of success and achievement where other work environments, especially of the entry-level variant, can be rather intense and brutal to juggle with school.
All of these benefits aren’t just a hypothetical idea either. This very newspaper is an option for student employment, and my own experiences with the job have not only been positive and mentally enriching but it’s also introduced me to the skills necessary to be a proper news writer in the professional industry, a job I would’ve considered myself entirely unfit for two years ago when I first joined The Ledger. All the while I’ve met and spoken with various talented writers and editors, gotten to increase my talents with photography, visited many interesting venues in the process of taking those photos, all the while being able to properly focus on my school work and staying involved with campus life.
This is a real option with real benefits, and there are plenty of options available to new and returning students after the online period, making this the best time to take advantage of them. The place to be is the UWT Handshake website at https://uw.joinhandshake.com/
Students can find all types of departments looking to hire at the link above, including our team at The Ledger! Our doors are open to any students who desire to nurture their talents in writing, news formatting, editing, management, illustration, or photography, all while earning a proper wage from it.
