First-Generation Students Juggle Multiple Jobs to Pay for College
Students at the UofA have the option to be involved in the Federal Work-Study program, but many students also seek employment off campus due to unawareness of the program or for opportunities that interest them more. Specifically, first-generation students have to learn to balance school and work in order to provide for themselves. Their education comes at a cost as they accumulate student loan debt that they will eventually be responsible for paying off.
By Mary Hennigan, Mary Fracchia and Elena Ramirez
The Razorback Reporter
Education comes at a cost to first-generation students at the University of Arkansas. Some have multiple jobs to make ends meet, while others skip meals or live off granola bars for a couple of days each week.
Jordie Lao is an example of a student who had to skip meals. Lao, a 20-year-old from Dallas, keeps her weekly food budget around $30. The UofA junior finds the sacrifice worth it and is proud to be a first-generation student. She is motivated by her mother, who regrets not attending college.
“Money is the biggest worry I have because there is never enough,” Lao said.
like her car payment and groceries. She will graduate with nearly $50,000 in student loan debt. Photo by Mary Fracchia
The Federal Work-Study program helps low-income students pay for their tuition by providing part-time jobs on or off campus while enrolled, according to the Federal Student Aid website. The University of Arkansas received more than $1.2 million to support the program for the 2019-2020 academic year.
There are around 450 Federal Work-Study jobs available at the UofA, but some first-generation students seek multiple jobs from outside employment, according to the UA Office of Financial Aid.
Joshua Coonfield, a junior at the UofA studying psychology, started the work-study program this semester. The 20-year-old from Garfield, Arkansas, works an average of 12-15 hours a week as an ambassador for The Center for Learning and Student Success.
Off-campus, he is employed as a line prep-cook at Southern Food Company and as a customer service supervisor at Burlington Coat Factory. Even with the three jobs to keep him afloat, Coonfield has collected nearly $8,000 of federal student loan debt, he said.
“None of my work-study goes toward my tuition,” he said. “What work-study goes to is just my personal things like books, things for school supplies.”
The average first-generation student loan debt at the UofA is $14,072, according to College Scorecard, a U.S. Department of Education database. Coonfield has made it a goal to be below $14,000 in student loans.
Coonfield is among the 360 work-study students employed part-time at the UofA. Students can earn no more than $3,000 an academic year. These earnings are paid to a student through direct deposit, a debit card system, or by having a check mailed to the student, said Erin Wooldridge, Federal Work-Study coordinator.
Wooldridge has never seen all of the positions filled during the last four years she has worked as coordinator.
“I don’t feel like I have done my part to promote work study as best as I could,” she said. Some employers don’t understand how to accommodate a student’s school schedule. “I try to emphasize with the employers that they’re students first,” Wooldridge said.
Melena Perry, a 24-year-old from Greenwood, Arkansas, has been enrolled at the UofA for six years and has been employed by the on-campus Starbucks for just as long. She also recently started as a peer mentor and ambassador for the School of Art.
Neither of Perry’s jobs is included in the Federal Work-Study program, but both are on campus, she said.
Perry said she’s experienced many pressures from having two jobs while being a full-time student. There are a lot of high expectations to succeed, make good grades, be independent and financially support herself.
While Perry has received help from her split household, she has still obtained about $20,000 in student loans and thinks her parents have collected nearly the same amount in Parent PLUS loans, which are loans that parents of dependent undergraduate students can use to help pay for college.
“Now that I do have debt from my tuition, there is even more pressure to graduate so I get a good job to pay off the loans,” Perry said. “I’m trying to crawl my way to the finish line.”
Perry is expected to graduate in May with a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art.
Students have access to off-campus work-study positions, but some UA students seek jobs that are not part of the program.
Lao works off campus in a job that focuses on her major in marketing and minor in enterprise resource planning. She uses her income from E.Leigh’s Contemporary Boutique on Dickson Street to make car payments and buy groceries.
Lao sought employment off campus because she thought the Federal Work-Study program “might be too time consuming,” she said.
Lao came from a single-parent household, so she understood the importance of going to work and being self-reliant, she said. She has received federal student aid because of her family situation.
Lao and her mother have a plan of how to tackle the almost $50,000 she will have accumulated in student loan debt by the time she graduates, but she is scared because she doesn’t want it to affect her credit in the future, she said.
Information about Work-Study can be found online through the Career Services website, the Human Resources office’s website and the Newswire, Wooldridge said.