Although the end of college usually means the beginning of job-hunting days for most students, 457 members of the Class of 1998 will arrive on campus eligible for work study positions.
Students eligible for work study can take on numerous campus jobs to help pay their tuition or give them some spending money. More than 20 offices across campus and several off-campus locations participate in the program, Work Study Coordinator Chad Puls said.
Many students start their work-study career for Dartmouth Dining Services -- cleaning dishes, serving food or manning the cash registers.
Director of Dining Services Peter Napolitano said 60 to 70 percent of DDS employees are on work study at the beginning of the year.
Students hold about 200 DDS positions, Napolitano said. Students working for DDS can find jobs in any College dining facility.
"Dining Services is probably the best bet to get a job," Jeff Bogue '97 said.
Bogue has worked at Food Court in Thayer Dining Hall for six hours a week since he came to Dartmouth.
"The job serves as a break from the monotonous routine," he said. At the end of Spring term, Bogue was earning $5.95 an hour. He gets a 10 cent raise every term.
Napolitano said most students work about 10 hours a week.
Bogue, who said he enjoyed his job at DDS because it has a "nice atmosphere," said the hardest part of the work-study process is actually finding a job.
Nathan Somers '97 also has worked for Food Court since coming to the College.
He said the job keeps him busy, teaches him what employment is like and provides him with his own money.
"You get to see a lot of your friends working around here and get paid pretty well," he said.
Work study is an allocation received from the federal government, said Virginia Hazen, director of financial aid.
The money from the government funds the program by reimbursing the participating employers 70 percent of the students' wages, so the hiring organizations directly pay only 30 percent of the salary, Hazen said.
Many other work-study students work for the College's library system.
Baker Library Administrative Assistant Corky Scott said the seven libraries on campus hire 100 students a year and most of them are work study.
Scott said he tries to place students in areas that suit their interests. For example, he looks for openings in the Dana Biomedical Library for biology majors.
Jennifer Groven '94 worked at the Baker circulation desk since the summer after her junior year and has also held work-study positions at DDS and the Jaffe-Friede art gallery.
She said her job at the library was "a little more exciting seeing people and having things to do."
Jason Kittredge '95 also works at the Baker circulation desk and said the training for his job taught him how the library system works, which paid off when researching papers.
He said he had no problem acquiring his job, since he went to apply for the position the first day he arrived at the College.
But Groven said the job was quite competitive to get since only 10 students work in circulation.
Library employers attempt to make the lives of workers pleasant so they will continue at their positions, Scott said.
If freshmen enjoy the job it is a "marriage made in heaven" because you have them for four years, he said.
Joan Huh '97 attempted to obtain a position at the Baker circulation desk last Fall term, but was unable to do so.
She currently works at the Dartmouth Alumni Records Office, which is located off campus in the basement of the Fleet Bank building on Main Street.
She said her work study experience has been enjoyable and it helps to take her "mind off things," such as academics.
Students can use Dart-Job, a computer program to locate positions, she said.
Huh found her job through Dart-Job.
Her advice to the Class of 1998 is to "put job hunting down as one of your priorities."
In the Fall term of the 1993, the department of financial aid gave work study awards to 1,500 students and approximately two-thirds of them participated in the program, Puls said.
