For National Student Employment Week this week, Oregon State University is celebrating student workers and all they bring to the institution — as well as all they gain from their experiences here.
There will be a Corvallis celebration of student employees from 3 to 5 p.m. Tuesday, April 14, in the Memorial Union Ballroom, and an OSU-Cascades celebration from 2 to 4 p.m. Thursday, April 16, in the Beaver Dam. Units across the university are encouraged to celebrate their teams throughout the week.
OSU currently employs about 7,000 student workers, including in Bend and Newport as well as Extension offices throughout the state.
“Student employment helps build campus connections and a sense of belonging in the community,” said Brenna Gomez, director of career integration at the Career Development Center. She cited a 2024 survey of undergraduate Corvallis student workers in which nearly 90% of respondents said they enjoyed their work environment and built community with their coworkers. “Working while in college also provides financial support to students, while helping them develop skills that will be beneficial in their careers.”
Gomez also pointed to past research by BYU Employment Services that found students working up to 15 to 20 hours per week actually reported higher GPAs than students who did not work at all.
As a video and social media producer, master’s student Emily Engelke-Ryan has been getting a unique perspective on student employment by interviewing fellow student workers for the “Clockin’ In” series with University Relations and Marketing. So far, she’s shadowed student workers at Safe Ride and the OSU Dairy and is just scratching the surface of the huge diversity of jobs at OSU.
“There are students who have more schoolwork than me and they’re still determined to work. There are jobs where you can be working very late, like Safe Ride. Everyone brings different skills to the table, and it just shows how many opportunities are out there for different people,” she said.
Engelke-Ryan graduated with her bachelor’s degree after two years at OSU, and is now getting her master’s in marketing while working part-time for URM, OSU Athletics and the Beaver Dam student section. She got her start creating YouTube videos in elementary school, adapting to new platforms as they emerged, then in college put her skills to use running her sorority’s social media accounts. Finding her jobs at OSU helped her see that video production could be a viable career path.
“The reactions I’ve received from staff members who have been here for a long time, who have worked with creative students, made me realize that I might have something special,” Engelke-Ryan said. “If I can have fun while working, I definitely want to make it a career for me.”
The flexibility and mentorship OSU supervisors provide make a big difference too, she said. Her bosses make sure her hours don’t interfere with coursework and help push her to grow her skills.
“In no way, shape or form do any of my employers at OSU want me to be stuck in one spot,” Engelke-Ryan said. “They’re always encouraging me to go beyond working at the school and to find different opportunities that make my goals come true.”
That kind of support from OSU faculty and staff is an integral piece of preparing students to enter the professional world, Gomez said. The Student Employee Supervisor SharePoint site offers many resources for OSU employers. She also encourages supervisors to talk with student workers about the core competencies outlined by the National Association of Colleges and Employers including communication, teamwork and critical thinking.
“These are the skills that both academia and industry believe students need to succeed in the workforce, and our students are definitely building them in their jobs,” Gomez said. “Student employment is successful when it’s a transformative professional-development experience where students can build transferrable skills and the confidence to achieve their goals — think graduation and beyond — in a supportive environment.”
Natalie Rooney, director of the OSU Welcome Center, sees this play out daily with her team of 75 campus tour ambassadors. She also earned her Ph.D. researching the ways universities can effectively support first-generation and low-income students in their middle years of college.
While joining clubs and affinity groups can be a good way to build community on campus, students who must work to pay their way through college don’t always have time for that option. So building community with coworkers and finding mentors in their supervisors is a helpful alternative, Rooney said.
In her 11 years supervising students, she’s talked with them about every subject under the sun, including their mental health struggles. Not only does Rooney provide a listening ear, but she also helps them connect with relevant campus resources for whatever they’re dealing with.
“Part of that conversation is telling them that this matters in the real world, too,” Rooney said. “I think there’s a responsibility on student supervisors to make sure we’re preparing students for what their job is going to look like someday, and the ways they can advocate for themselves in the real world, too.”
She also prepares them for the day-to-day tasks of professional life. When new students join the team, she said she has zero expectation that they’ll know how to send professional emails or answer phones, and so part of her role — and the role of student employment at OSU — is to teach them those basic skills.
“Having a student job can be really transformative. It teaches you new skills and gives you confidence to go out in the real world,” Rooney said. “We need to celebrate our student employees a lot. They’re the backbone of so much that happens in the university, and I think sometimes they’re unsung heroes in the work they do.”
Events for National Student Employment Week were organized by the Career Development Center and the Student Employment Center. The April 14 celebration is sponsored by OSU Rec Sports. The CDC has also put together a video highlighting dozens of student workers in a wide range of workplaces, including dining centers, reception desks, recreational sports and research labs.
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