Being a student is expensive – point blank. A lot of students end up taking on part time jobs to help supplement their living costs or just to have some extra cash on hand. Working while in school can help prepare you for life after graduation and help you get better situated in your field. Luckily, finding a job is something that York can help you out with!
Welcome to the third and final instalment of my Evolving Involvement at York series! Follow along as I recount my experience at York thus far and how I found a fulfilling community by getting involved with life on campus.
Work/Study positions
York offers several ways for students to work while studying through its Work/Study Program, Leadership, Engagement and Ambassadorship Program (LEAP) and Research at York (RAY).
Work/Study positions are catered for students and tend to have flexible hours, be part-time (with opportunities for longer hours during the summer term) and are easily accessible – whether you’re working somewhere on campus or remotely. They can really help you get into the nitty gritty of the university experience and see what’s going on behind the scenes at York. There are plenty of things happening on and off campus that I would’ve never known about and places I wouldn’t have visited if I hadn’t been a Work/Study student.
Pro tip: You can apply for Work/Study, LEAP or RAY positions through various job postings put up on internal job boards throughout the year. You can find out more information on the Current Students website.
My experience with Work/Study
Technically, my first time working with York was when I worked for Nuit Blanche – an overnight arts festival where art installations pop up all around the city. That year, they had a couple exhibitions on Keele Campus and I was gallery-sitting for one of them. Although this wasn’t an official Work/Study position, it still gave me some insights into York’s payment system and how it felt to be an employee.
I got my first ever Work/Study position at York the summer before I started my third year, as a communications & marketing assistant with the Student System Renewal Program. I learned so much about the work being done to upgrade York’s pre-existing systems and got to work with a lovely team of organizational change management specialists in what was my first ever ‘real job.’
My most recent job in the Division of Students allowed me to reach out to the student community with blog posts and gain a deeper understanding of just how many workshops, webinars, opportunities and resources York has for students. Not to mention meeting and working with fun and interesting people from different majors on campus.
Being a work study student has done nothing but serve me well, so I have happily continued to work with York since I got my first job back in the summer of 2023.
I often feel like I’ve unlocked a new level of the university experience. When I walk on campus, I see the carefully catered community I’ve built up over the past four years. It’s one of my favourite things about York. Wherever I walk, I see someone I know from a club, a class or an event I participated in. I have spots on campus to hang out, I can talk to my professors about academics and leisurely advice and I have a good support group to laugh and study with. It might have taken a little while, but I do really have a valued community here at York.
In turn, my university experience has been reciprocal. Everything I have given to curate my community has been given back to me – whether it’s the connections I’ve made with people or an opportunity I’ve received from someone I’ve helped before. University can be intimidating and even lonely at first, but there’s always an opportunity to get to know people and find your own community if you just take the first step of putting yourself out there!
Check out the other two instalments in this series about attending events and joining and making clubs!