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Student Life, USF Administration

Students recognized during National Student Employment Week

Posted by Nicholas Trobiano ⋅ April 12, 2012 ⋅ Leave a Comment

Filed Under college, employment, jobs, Student, Student Life, students, University of South Florida, USF

USF employs nearly 3,500 students every semester and this week these students are being recognized.

Monday marked the first day of National Student Employment Week, a national event to celebrate the importance and success of student employee programs.

“Student employment on campus is a great way for students to connect to campus,” said Ashley Motley, a career counselor at the USF Career Center.

Career Peers from the USF Career Center mentor other student employees. PHOTO: USF Career Center

With 12.4 percent of student employees, Campus Recreation employs the largest number of students at USF. Housing and Residential Education and Intercollegiate Athletics are second and third with 7.4 percent and 6.1 percent respectively.

“The initiative is called Student Employment at USF, and it came out of the Student Success task force,” said Cynthia Bacheller, Student Success recruiter for USF Human Resources. “Based on the research student employment is connected positively towards student success.”

Bacheller said students who work on campus for 20 hours a week or less are also more likely to graduate on time than students who don’t work.

“[USF] gets the opportunity to have student employees that are more connected and understand the university better versus and outside employee that would have to learn the culture of USF,” Bacheller said.

President Genshaft sent emails to all student employees on Monday thanking them for their efforts and commitment to the university.

“I know balancing both work and academic responsibilities is challenging and requires a great amount of determination, time management and discipline,” Genshaft said. “We commend you for your choice to make work a part of your academic success.”

Senior telecommunications major Dani Barta has worked for University Communications and Marketing for seven months.

“Working in this office has really broadened my scope because working with students in class, you fall into the same patterns,” Barta said. “Being in the office with professionals who do what I do every day and have been doing it for years is totally different.”

In addition to the mentoring students receive from their superiors, Bacheller said peer-to-peer relationships impact student success tremendously.

“If you have students working at a front desk or working in a peer leadership role, sometimes your other students are going to respond more to that because they feel the student has a better understanding,” she said.

Motley agreed.

“Students respond more positively when they are getting feedback from their peers because they are both at the phase of life,” Motley said. ”Our Career Peers are able to talk to students in their language that students understand.”

Friday the Career Center will host the Have Your Cake and Career, Too! Workshop to teach current student employees how to use the skills they learned on the job and apply them to their future jobs.

“It’s about taking responsibility for developing your own transferable skills through conversations with your current supervisors to ask for more and owning your own experience,” Motley said.

About Nicholas Trobiano

Nicholas Trobiano is a magazine journalism major at the University of South Florida and freelance designer and photographer. He works as a a style intern for Creative Loafing Tampa and a graphic design intern for USF's Communications and Marketing department, where he most recently helped coordinate the NBC 2012 Republic Presidential Candidates Debate in Janurary 2012. He previously served as the graphic arts manager, entertainment editor, and assistant montage editor of USF’s student newspaper, “The Oracle,” as well as a news intern for WUSF Public Media. In 2011, he received a scholarship for his studies at the University of South Florida from the School of Mass Communications and the School's Garner Rose O'Brien Halderman Scholarship providers. When he is out of the office, he enjoys running, cooking, tweeting, and a great bottle of wine with friends. He currently resides in Tampa, Florida.

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