Who are Student Employment Services?
You may remember dredging up the energy to get to the third floor of Malone where you would hand in your I-9 to Student Employment Services and potentially never see them again. That job has been taken off their shoulders by Human Resources and now they focus their resources on meeting students where they are and being more involved with the greater LMU working community. SES strives to help student workers get the needed experience and develop skills for their career goals. They acknowledge a degree is not enough to get the job you want after your time at LMU. Asher Lyons, one of our Working Lions at SES, conveys student employment as “ a job with training wheels”, allowing students to make mistakes and have real-world adjacent career-building experiences you can’t get from the classroom. Yoel Rodriguez, Marketing and Media Coordinator for SES is pushing for a message of support and guidance from SES and administrators/ faculty to help students navigate their career goals. They help students find positions that fit them, help develop professional employment skills, support supervisors with training, and more. Lyons and Rodriguez are listening to student requests and are utilizing the media to reach students where they are.
Student Employment’s Media Makeover
SES realized that their on-campus presence wasn’t as prominent as they would like for an organization that touches on every department and person at LMU. Lyons, their media team lead, is working beside Rodrquez to grow their audience on social media platforms such as Instagram creating multiple mini-series bringing more attention to the resources SES and other campus departments offer. Recently you may have seen Lyons and his team behind the counter at places like the Distribution Center and The Den providing “a behind-the-scenes” look at on-campus jobs. Lyons being a student is an attribute that has been resourceful in helping SES understand where students need the most assistance and connect them to department resources. Next semester Lyons says he plans to produce “a time management series understanding college students are not always the best with scheduling out their time”. In this series, they will follow a student to grasp what a day in a working lion’s life is and lay the groundwork for how students can best manage their time. Lyons also works on the administration side to better inform students and faculty by updating the SES website. This includes a list of “How-to’s” beneficial for supervisors such as “How to hire a Rains student employee” to provide a smoother process for supervisors and student workers. Lyon has taken student leadership the extra mile not only supervising a team of people but also helping lead Working Lions and departments to resources they’re searching for.
Transactions to Transformations
Rodriguez emphasizes SES’s initiative to add value to student jobs so their experiences and career goals can reflect on their resumes to future employers. As a supervisor of student workers himself, Rodriguez sets an example with his student workers like Daniela. At the start, Rodriquez asks his team questions like “What are your career goals for the future?” explaining that as a supervisor of Working Lions, it’s imperative to “tailor these experiences for students’ future careers”. Job titles are where it all starts. Daniela, when asked these questions, found she wanted to change the automated job name to “brand entertainment strategist” to best fit her career goals. Rodriguez wants supervisors to not only think of student employment as a way to assist people but also as a mentorship for students’ future careers.
LMU Turning the Sprinklers on “Federal First” Fires
The SES campaign Federal First is working on helping to potentially raise the work-study amounts the federal government allocates to LMU. The hope is to increase the current stagnant work-study award, ranging from about $2,000 to $3,000 per school year. Although the minimum wage is going up, work-study isn’t; causing students to work fewer hours, hurting their career development. In the past year, SES has started the Federal First campaign, pushing students to use all of the work-study so students can receive more funding. In this campaign, they have prompted supervisors to use work-study funds first before any department funds. Rodriguez shares with me how the exponential progress of the campaign in the past year with work-study “usage increased by 50%” in the past year. With this achievement, students are on the road to getting more funds and therefore more hours with their work-study jobs.
Uncovering the Hidden Job Market at LMU
While it may seem difficult to obtain new opportunities SES has resources for all on campus jobs including the seemingly elusive non-work study. Rodriguez, Lyons, and team have been trying to bring more attention towards SES and be more active in the community by “holding six job fairs in the past two years”. Now they’re advertising for tailored job fairs, most recently they had one focused on non-work study jobs helping those already with work study that want another form of income and international students. In addition to showcasing these hidden jobs they also have a list of departments that have non-work study funds. Rodriguez recalls there being 15 departments that have non-work study funds including housing and event operations. Rodriguez also pushes for students to find research opportunities with their Professors who can apply for the Rains Research Grant to aid them in all aspects of their research including paying research assistants. SES is an excellent resource for students and administration to use assist them get to their professional goals.
