Work-Study and Retention

 

Students participating in the Federal Work-Study program have improved educational outcomes, particularly if they are marginalized and underserved by the higher education system (Yu et al., 2020). In addition, students funded through Federal Work-Study can function as mentors helping other students improve their skills and grades and increasing retention by being helpful citizens in the college environment (Carver et al., 2017).

Work-Study has been shown to increase retention by providing students with a means to pay for school by working reasonable hours and gaining professional experience (Chu et al., 2021). Federal Work‐Study can help increase career readiness. When students are allowed to shape their environment while working flexibly on or off-campus, they can take responsibility for their education by contributing to paying for their education. With an on-campus job, they can be active members of the community, increasing retention (Yu et al., 2020).

While Olbrecht et al. (2016) found that colleges can increase retention rates by providing more "free" money to students and Yu et al. (2020) suggested that FWS participation was positively associated with student's academic performance and retention, articles like those by Chu et al. (2021) and Creed et al. (2019;2020) introduce new useful concepts. Chu et al. (2021) introduced role boundary congruence theory states that individuals both seek and fashion their environments in ways that allow them to express behaviors consistent with personal characteristics while meeting their needs when employers can facilitate working students by implementing student-friendly policies students reported experiencing increased well-being, academic performance, and perceived employability. Finally, Creed et al. (2019;2020) introduced us to job crafting. According to this theory, individuals will utilize self-regulation to reduce perceived gaps between the actual and desired work situations. Student job crafting was related to improvements in both work habits and study habits, also leading to improved well-being and increased retention (Creed et al., 2019;2020).