As executive director of GW Hillel, which promotes religious pluralism on campus, Robert Fishman is thrilled to employ Federal Work Study students at the Gewirz Center at 23rd and H streets.
“As a small nonprofit organization on campus, FWS provides us with an opportunity to employ GW students when we would not be in a position to do so,” he says. “This enhances our operation and enables students to work on campus.”
With a recent allocation of $1 million, largely of federal stimulus funds, to increase support of the FWS financial aid program, GW is facilitating the success stories Dr. Fishman describes. The funds, which will increase GW’s commitment to off-campus work study dollars by more than 70 percent over last year, will enable more than 300 additional students to work part time in service-related jobs.
“Our students are powerfully drawn to public service, and these new funds will help them engage in it while also supporting themselves,” says GW President Steven Knapp.
Over the past four months, staff in the GW Career Center worked with more than 26 new off-campus partners to develop new FWS jobs for GW students interested in public service employment opportunities, resulting in a 60 percent increase in the number of new off campus jobs created this year. To date, more than 555 GW Federal Work Study students have been hired for public service positions.
April Crowder, a junior from Silver Spring, Md., describes her experience as a FWS student at the National Archives as “wonderful.” “I am thrilled that there are more off-campus public service-related jobs. I would recommend participation for anyone who is planning on working in government or other public service areas in the future.”
Her employer, Michael Goldman of the National Archives and Records Administration, echoes the sentiment. “We have found the GW Federal Work Study program an excellent way to give students public service experience while helping them pay for their education.”
Another FWS student at GW, Tim Savoy, a sophomore double majoring in chemistry and international affairs, is working at the Peace Corps, where he works in the inter-America and Pacific region. “It is great to be able to make connections and network in D.C. while still developing what I want to do after school,” says Mr. Savoy, who is also director of operations for GW Amnesty International, a house proctor and a trip leader with the Alternative Break Program at GW.
According to Carolyn Gill, a staff assistant at the Department of Veterans Affairs, which hires GW work-study students, students like Mr. Savoy are at an advantage due to their location in Washington.
“The Federal workforce is extremely busy and very short of people. Excellent opportunities for students exist to work side by side very experience professionals to assist in accomplishing important goals and objectives,” she says. “It is an excellent path for starting a federal career in your major field of study.”