The Work Program is supposed to be about expanding horizons and raising the level of work experience for all those who participate. The Work Office is not only trying to give students experiences on campus that emulate the working world outside of Blackburn, but also the opportunity to gain real-world job experience. Furthermore the college hopes to give students tuition credit for these real world experiences, just like any on-campus job.
A new concept that is under development is meant to foster relationships between the college and different organizations and businesses that operate beyond the campus. The idea is to create internship-like positions for which students can receive tuition credit.
Associate Dean of Work Rob Weis wants students “to have experiences that go beyond what we provide here and to start providing students with experiences in their fields of interest.” Weis is seeking students that currently have jobs off campus with the ultimate goal of partnering with the business or organization to provide these same jobs to students in the future.
But why move work off the Blackburn campus? For many the tuition jobs on campus provide a service to the institution, such as Campus Services which cleans the dorms and academic buildings. In exchange for this service, the college credits a portion of the student worker’s tuition. In order to account for what would be lost in turning over some student labor to jobs in the surrounding community and beyond, the establishments that students will be working for off campus will pay for a portion of their tuition.
According to Weis the ideal candidates for this program would be juniors and seniors who have spent a considerable amount of time in an on-campus job.
In addition, not all off-campus jobs would be eligible, but there may be exceptions on a case-by-case basis. For instance, “What we would be looking for typically are companies and businesses that are in a person’s field of interest,” said Weis. “Let’s say someone is in a management role at McDonald’s and their major is business management…why not?” remarked Weis in reference to the kind of jobs the new program may include. “What we are looking for at this point is something that would be applicable.” However, senior computer science major Matt Pfannenstiel disagrees. “It seems like it would be a good idea in theory, but it would be difficult to qualify an off-campus job for the program,” said Pfannenstiel.
Since this new program is only in the development phase, Weis is still gathering ideas about jobs that could be included. Weis urges anyone with an off-campus job that they think would be a good fit for this new program to contact him at robert.weis@blackburn.edu.