The arrangement not only makes college more affordable for students who otherwise might not be able to go, it also gives them real-life experience, teaches them responsibility and how to work together, officials said.
“I love it,” said Melissa Eckstrom, of Philadelphia, who is an assistant garden manager at Sterling College in Craftsbury, Vt., where she’s studying sustainable agriculture. “It’s really satisfying to work in the garden and do all this hands-on, you know, dirty work ― and I go to the kitchen and sit down for a meal and I’m like, I grew this. It can’t get more full circle than that.”
With rising college costs and a national student loan debt reaching more than $1 trillion, “earning while learning” is becoming more appealing for some students. The work college program is different than the federal work study program, which is an optional voluntary program that offers funds for part-time jobs for needy students.
But at the seven so-called work colleges ― Sterling College, Alice Lloyd College in Pippa Passes, Ky., Berea College in Berea, Ky., Blackburn College in Carlinville, Ill., College of the Ozarks in Lookout, Mo., Ecclesia College in Springdale, Ark., and Warren Wilson College in Asheville, N.C., ― work is required and relied upon for the daily operation of the institution, no matter what the student’s background. The students are then evaluated on their performance.
“It’s a core component of the educational program,” said Robin Taffler, executive director of the Work Colleges Consortium.
“It does not differentiate between those that can afford to pay for their education, from those that must work to cover their educational costs. And that’s a big deal. No student can buy their way out of this work program. So this essentially levels the playing field because everybody is doing a job,” she said.
