Megan Riksen:

Hello and welcome to the Work Like a Laker podcast. I'm Megan Riksen, and today I am joined by Dani Lauer. Hi Dani.

Dani Lauer:

Hi Megan.

Megan Riksen:

And we are so excited to be here back for our first episode of Season seven. How did that happen? How are we already here?

Dani Lauer:

I know. Happy fall Lakers. Yes. Your school year.

Megan Riksen:

Exactly. So we thought we would kick it off this season talking about working on campus, um, because there are so, so many opportunities at Grand Valley. There actually are over 4,500 students who work on campus throughout the year. So that could be many of you listeners. Um, so you probably have heard, you know, some of the positions, people you might interact with on a daily basis on campus, like campus dining and front desk workers maybe when you came to campus for your campus tour. Right. Those are student employees. Um, but we wanna highlight a few more unique opportunities that you might not have heard of. So before we jump into the specifics there, Danny, do you wanna kick us off with just kind of talking about why we might want to work on campus?

Dani Lauer:

Absolutely. So there are many benefits to working on campus. Research actually shows that 10 to 15 hours of employment per week is often associated with a higher GPA and an increase in skills such as time management. I mean that's pretty good. Pretty excellent.

Megan Riksen:

Yes. Yeah,

Dani Lauer:

<laugh>. And you know, another big one is just the flexibility with schoolwork. So, you know, being on campus, the jobs that are here are gonna obviously know that you're a student and they know that you have a schedule and that schedule often changes and so they're gonna be willing and able to schedule around your classes, your other commitments and your academics are always going to remain the priority. And so that also means when Grand Valley is closed for holidays and breaks, you get work off. So huge perk there. Right?

Megan Riksen:

You didn't even have to ask for time off. Exactly.

Dani Lauer:

Just give it to you. It is automatic. Yes. And then, you know, another benefit of working on campus is location. So I mean, who doesn't love a short commute to worker class? I know. I really love just a very short commute. Yeah,

Megan Riksen:

It's so helpful.

Dani Lauer:

Seriously. And so having work right by where you live, um, is something you might not even realize, you know, that's helpful until you don't have it anymore. So having your, you know, living situation, your job, your school all in the same area really decreases commute time, transportation costs, I mean it's just a win-win overall. It's

Megan Riksen:

For sure. So speaking of wins, another win is that through your on-campus employment, you can meet new people, you can build your network because you're working on campus obviously. Um, which means you're working with your fellow students. And I know it's been such a joy in the career center. We have many student employees, um, and we see friendships develop. We see these students coming back to us after they're done working here, um, because of that sense of belonging that they felt in the career center. And I think you will find that in many, many places on campus. Um, it also lets you work more closely with faculty and staff on campus in such a different way than a faculty relationship. Your professor who's teaching your class, that's a very different relationship than when you are working side by side. Um, so those people can become mentors.

Megan Riksen:

It can potentially lead to future opportunities. You kind of never know where that can go, but the networking that happens is, is very beneficial. And then lastly, it is a great way to get your first related experience and start to build your resume. So no matter where you end up working on campus, your job is gonna help you develop those professional skills. It's gonna help you to gain experience that you might include on your resume. You know, some of the general ones would be like communication, problem solving, customer service, time management, leadership. But you might also be a little more strategic in your on campus employment and say, yeah, I want to work in a particular area that is pretty aligned with what I wanna do in the future. And we're gonna give you lots of ideas for that.

Dani Lauer:

Absolutely. And so today we're gonna break down some specific student employment opportunities that fit within each of our career communities, um, here in the career center. And there just are so many jobs. So whether you're searching for something in more of a customer service role or an internship, there truly is something for everyone. And so to help us dive in a little bit deeper to these on-campus jobs, we have a special guest here with us today. Um, Molly Landa. Molly is a graduate assistant here in the career center and she's had a number of on-campus jobs. So she is going to talk to us a little bit more about her experiences.

Molly Landa:

Hi everyone. Yes. Like Dani said, I am Molly. I am currently in grad school here at Grand Valley. Before this I was also have done my undergrad here at Grand Valley. I got a Bachelor of Arts in Communication studies and a minor in writing. And during my four years here I managed to work in six different student employment

Megan Riksen:

Opportunities.

Molly Landa:

That's a lot. Yes. As you can tell, I found one and I loved it so much, I just kept going. Um, but yeah, I once again loved it so much that I decided to come back to Grand Valley to get my master's in higher education college student affairs leadership. So I want to not only keep working on campus and my undergrad, but I got my master's in as well. So I'm always gonna be working that's on campus. Um, and then, yeah, I'm a graduate assistant now in the career center. This is my third school year here in the office. So you like us, get rid of me, I like to say. Um, but yeah, it's been a great experience and I'm excited to talk about all that here today.

Dani Lauer:

Awesome. Okay, so we are going to kick it off with our first career community and we're gonna start with business. So one of the positions on campus you might not have heard of before is the Money Smart Peer Mentor, um, within finance. And so these uh, student workers are located in the office of Financial Aid and scholarships. Um, they advise students on financial topics such as budgeting, student loan repayment, understanding credit reports, and wealth building. And so if you're interested in financial literacy, teaching other people about finances and you know, even gaining some public speaking and financial advising skills, this would be just a really great position that you might be interested in. And so Molly also had a job where she was involved in something related to the business career community. So she's gonna tell us a little bit about that.

Molly Landa:

Yeah, so let me think. My last semester here at Grand Valley, I worked in the Office of Student Life or the promotions officer, the same thing as an involvement assistant. And this was a really heavy marketing position. So if you're into marketing, this is a great job for you to look at. Pretty much all I did was I went to really fun events. Like I gotta work campus life night, I gotta work. I guess I would've been able to work the spring concert if I was still there, but I graduated <laugh>. Nice. But events like that, you're gonna just help out with that. And then we are not working events, you're just tabling around campus talking to students about potential involvement opportunities that they can do, whether it's going to these events or it's joining student organizations. And another really fun thing that I got to do is sit in on the weekly or bi-weekly, um, marketing meetings. So I gotta talk to 'em about social media posts that they were thinking about doing or other ways to get students involved on campus. So it was nice 'cause I was the student perspective. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> in this meeting. So talking about this is what students are liking, this is what they're not liking. And if we're trying to reach out to more students from just a student's perspective, this is what you should be doing. Awesome.

Dani Lauer:

Sounds like a great job. And just so many ways to improve communication skills and yeah. Really build some good resume points there. So, perfect. Okay, we are gonna move on to our next career community, which is communications and the arts. And one job we have available on campus that fits within this community is a costume assistant.I had no idea.

Megan Riksen:

<laugh>. Yeah, I learned this as well.

Dani Lauer:

I know this sounds so much fun. So if you have a desire to work in theater, art, dance, even fashion, um, then a job in the costume shop might be a perfect fit for you. Um, this role is responsible for keeping stock of inventory, repairing garments as needed and assisting the costume manager with any of their projects. So you might be somebody who's good at following directions, you might be interested in sewing or just even wanna experience, you know, something within the arts and get paid for it. I mean, sounds like a great opportunity. It does.

Megan Riksen:

I would be absolutely horrible at it. I'm terrible at sewing. Yeah. But maybe other parts of the job I could do

Dani Lauer:

Same.

Molly Landa:

Yeah.

Dani Lauer:

I don't know if this would be for me, but it sounds really fun and exciting. So, um, Molly, do you wanna share a little bit about your position that fits within this community?

Molly Landa:

Yes. So for about a year during my undergrad I was a campus tour guide, which is a pretty well thought of student employment opportunity. And that was my first on-campus job that I ever had. And I had so much fun with it, I absolutely loved it, but I learned so many skills there that I didn't even realize I needed to learn until I was even reflecting on it. I'm like, oh, this is why I learned a lot of those important skills I now use. One is just of course public speaking. You're speaking in front of a group, you're talking and walking. So it's also a great workout.

Megan Riksen:

Amazing.

Molly Landa:

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>

Megan Riksen:

Get the steps in.

Molly Landa:

<affirmative>. Mm-Hmm. Hour long walks while talking, man, that's, I recommend it. There's also a little bit of marketing and even a little bit of sales in there too because you are advertising Grand Valley talking about your experiences. So there's a little bit of that as well as interpersonal skills. You wanna build relationships and you only have an hour to build relationships with anywhere from one family to, I had up to 15 families, uh, tour at once. So it's also that really quick relationship building and then also keeping the group engaged and tailoring your communication to a certain group. One story may be an absolute hit with one group, but another group may not need to hear that information. So you also have to be able to gauge where, um, what the group likes and what they want to hear. And so they have the experience that they want.

Dani Lauer:

It's such a good point. Fun fact. That was one of my on-campus jobs When I was a student and it was so much fun. Learned a ton, got really comfortable just talking to bigger groups of people and that has served me well in my career. So it's

Megan Riksen:

Not gonna ever hurt.

Dani Lauer:

Exactly. Mm-Hmm. Exactly. And you learn so many fun facts about campus, about your school. Yeah. It's, yeah, it's really, it's fun during like trivia with friends <laugh>.

Molly Landa:

That's amazing.

Dani Lauer:

Okay, so moving on to our human and public service career community. Um, so you might have heard of the Sustainable Agriculture Project here on campus and they offer internships and so you might have heard it called the SAP. Um, and it's a physical place here on campus and it's actually a scientific station and students go there to research plants, the environment, human environmental interactions, systems thinking community, um, and they actually get to sell the things that they grow. I have a little pot of honey. Yeah. From the bees that they were keeping it.

Megan Riksen:

That's so cute. So cute.

Dani Lauer:

Yeah. It's really, really cool. Um, and they offer a dozen, over a dozen internships to students. Um, some of them are for like florals, uh, food access, compost, soil and water, equitable food. So they offer anything from event planning, marketing, even videography, internships. And even if you're not interested in an internship or maybe that's not something you need at the moment, they also have open volunteer hours every week. So

Megan Riksen:

Oh that's a hot tip.

Dani Lauer:

Yeah. Nice. So maybe you have a green thumb and you just wanna get some volunteer hours in. I could actually go and learn from these people because all my house plants are really struggling.

Megan Riksen:

Oh, it's hard.

Dani Lauer:

Yes. So I could use some good tips and maybe get some volunteer hours. So sustainable agriculture product or the SAP right off campus. Great place. So, alright, Molly, you have a great, uh, example for this, uh, career community. Why don't you tell us about it?

Molly Landa:

Yeah, so also during my last semester of undergrad here, I worked in the alcohol and other drugs office as a peer educator. So my role there was once again, just exactly what it sounds. I would educate my peers Mm-hmm <affirmative> on alcohol and drug safety. And that's a little bit more of a sensitive topic that you have to figure out how to communicate in a certain way 'cause you don't know how people are feeling about that topic. So I helped a lot with marketing and event planning, but a part of that was also learning how are we gonna do this in a way that engages students because it is a sensitive and also not a lot of college students wanna come to an office to talk about mm-Hmm. <affirmative> appropriate alcohol and drugs safety. So how are we gonna get students here communicate a message in a way that makes sense for them and also not be shameful, not have them be embarrassed for coming into our office.

Megan Riksen:

Great. All right, well you're three for three <laugh> in career communities. I think I might have found one. You don't have something to tell us about and that is for stem. Um, so the opportunity there that we wanted to highlight was actually in the Atomic Object Technology showcase, which is, um, within the library in Allendale is where you would actually be working. And the roles they have, there's a few of them, but one of them is an emerging technology specialist. Um, and that role is someone who's working in that showcase, um, to provide faculty, staff and students with an immersive and engaging environment where they can interact, discover, learn, and share how innovative emerging technologies can enhance teaching and improve student learning at GVSU. So they offer all sorts of workshops. They have a maker space where maybe you wanna try out 3D printing, um, lots of ways to explore technology really get hands on.

Megan Riksen:

And the students who are doing that are the ones kind of providing that instruction and helping people to test all these great things out. So it's a great opportunity because students from any major can work in the showcase, um, and educate others on effective uses of the technology. All right. And because Molly is such a slacker, I'm gonna go on to the next career community where I think she actually might have two to tell us about, but the next career community is education. And for this one we thought it would be fun to highlight our knowledge market where students can apply to be a research consultant. So these consultants help other students help their fellow students with library research that could include brainstorming and narrowing topics, finding quality information including peer reviewed and scholarly sources, avoiding plagiarism, citing sources, you know, all those things that are a little tricky as a college student that you might just want a little bit of help on. And those research consultants are trained very, very well. Um, so you yourself would be jumping into a position where you're going to get a ton of professional development and this job also allows you to build active listening, peer mentoring, group facilitation skills. These are all things that are yeah, just really valuable within the field of education. So Molly hit us with your next job.

Molly Landa:

Yes. I actually had two jobs within the education career community. 'cause I was an education major for about the first two years of my undergrad. The first one, which I think is pretty well known within the education community is K through 12 Connect tutoring, which is virtual tutoring for, at the time when I was there it was just elementary to middle schoolers, but I think now they've expanded it to high school. Nice. Um, and I did math tutoring for students, which was really beneficial because I was working with students one virtually. So I was learning how to keep students engaged in a virtual environment when they were distracted by by about a million things at home. And then also working with parents. I had a lot of parent communication, making sure their kids were on time for appointments if there were some technology issues. And also if I just needed to talk to parents about the student's progress.

Molly Landa:

So I learned a lot about that too, because in education working with parents is something you're always gonna do. So how do you communicate with them in a professional way? Another job that I worked, which is a little, I don't wanna say newer, but I didn't learn about it till later in my college career, was Rep4, which is a summer program Grand Valley puts on which it's like a conference almost. They bring in high schoolers from primarily low income areas. And they give them this opportunity to talk to college students. I was a student mentor, so I had a bunch of students come talk to me about my experiences at Grand Valley and any problems that I see and they would have to implement design thinking and come up with a solution for that. And in return, after going through this conference, they got admitted into Grand Valley and they also got free college tuition. So I gotta work with high school students and gotta share my own college experience. And then I also walked them through the design thinking process of, okay, I have a problem, what are the stages to figure out that solution? And then also just sharing my own college experience with them, with students who, a lot of them also were or will be first generation students. So just being a mentor in that way as well and sharing my experiences and how Grand Valley's just a great option in that I'm happy that they are in that conference.

Megan Riksen:

Awesome. Cool. Yeah, two very unique and great opportunities there. And then our final career community, last but not least is healthcare. And here we wanted to showcase a couple of things. One being, um, research experience with faculty. So we have many, many opportunities for students to work on campus doing research, the Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarship, um, which is a program within the Center for Undergraduate Scholar engagement. Lots of words there. Um, provide support for undergraduates who want to pursue research and creative practice within their discipline. Um, we actually go really, really in depth on undergraduate research, um, back in season six, episode four. So check out that episode to learn more. But these are often paid positions, um, where students are getting a chance to really test out what it's like to work in their particular discipline. We heard of one, um, particular project where a student was actually collecting saliva for some experiment.

Megan Riksen:

So, you know, you never know where that research is gonna bring you. Um, and then the other quick one I wanted to mention within healthcare is called the Scribe Academy, where you actually are first in a kind of a training program where you're um, learning how to document, um, patient care. Basically you're doing notes. Um, so you're learning how to work alongside a healthcare provider, um, and doing the documentation for them. So you kind of are a part of this academy first and then you are offered employment after that. So that's a really excellent, um, option for kind of working on campus but then transitioning off campus.

Dani Lauer:

Yeah, that makes so much sense. And I just, with these opportunities too, especially within healthcare, so many of our healthcare students might be going on to graduate programs, medical school, and these are phenomenal experiences that you can work towards for those applications when it comes time. And so, you know, definitely building your resume, getting good experience within the healthcare field and getting research experience phenomenal for those applications.

Megan Riksen:

Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Great. Okay. And this podcast would not be complete if we didn't also put a plugin for working in the career center. Of course. Um, we have about 15 student employees at any given time from a variety of majors who work in our office. Um, so we have student assistants who are working at our front desk helping with operations and various projects. Another role are our career connectors, which are peer advisors who help in our career lab as as peer advisors. Um, doing some of those drop-in appointments. Um, and then we also have really great interns in various areas, marketing events, data, um, lots and lots of really, really good opportunities. So definitely check out our opportunities as well. And Molly, I think your last one that you're gonna share with us today is one you've been doing for a while with us, you've been a career connector?

Molly Landa:

Yeah, I have been a career connector. I was a career connector for about three semesters, so a year and a half roughly. That's where I started. And I found my love for higher education and like I said, and I'm staying here during my master's as a graduate assistant and I loved being a career connector. It really taught me how much I value working in a team. I feel like I never really had that before in my other positions. And just everyone who I worked with from the career advisors, my supervisors was are just so supportive. They still are. And it just really helped me grow, not only professionally but personally. Everyone wanted to see me succeed and they wanted to make sure that I was performing well at this job, but also performing well outside of school. Um, but I love being a career connector. I'm actually starting to supervise them. So I feel like now what I know it's kinda like now, like I don't know if it's a full circle moments, is that what we would call it?

Megan Riksen:

It will be!

Molly Landa:

It'll be kind of when I graduate. Yeah. But I love the work that our career connectors do. They really do so much for us day to day. And it may just be like, oh, it's a quick 10 minute resume drop in. But that really does helps out students so much. And career center would not be where it is without them.

Megan Riksen:

I totally agree. Cool. All right, so hopefully that has gotten you just a little bit of insight into some of the cool little bit more unique, um, student positions on campus. Well thank you so much, Molly, for being here. Um, and yeah, Danny, you kind of wanna round us off a little bit with how can, how can students find and apply?

Dani Lauer:

Absolutely. Great. Right? So we wouldn't just tell you about all these amazing jobs and then not give you, you know, the how do I actually go ahead and do this? And so earlier this year, maybe you already know this, but Grand Valley Trans, uh, transitioned into a platform called Workday. And that's where all of our on-campus jobs are posted. So we are gonna go ahead and link that in the show notes and all you need to do is log into Workday with your Grand Valley credentials. Once you're in, you're gonna go ahead and click the Student employment opportunities in your apps and then you'll be able to see the available positions and then another strategy. So that's one way to do it. Right. Um, but you can actually look at, um, specific departments or office websites and see if they have student employees. A lot of them have their student employees listed.

Dani Lauer:

You can see who's working there. You might even know somebody who works in that office. You never know. And sometimes those offices might have an application right on their website or you can email them to inquire about jobs. And kind of that being said too, I mean go into an office. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> Sure. Ask if they're hiring, right? Yeah. Maybe there's an office you frequent often, maybe it's your advising center. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, maybe it's your major department and all the faculty are there. Right. And maybe you just wanna get more involved. So stop in, ask if they're hiring. Um, even if they're not, this is a really good way to make a connection, get information Network maybe that will benefit you in the future. Yeah. So yeah,

Megan Riksen:

I think that's absolutely true. And also just so everybody who's listening is aware, yes, it's Workday that is for student employment opportunities, but we still have Handshake as well as a platform. Um, and this is where you will want to go for pretty much everything else, right. So jobs, internships, I will say it can still be a great platform to look for on-campus internships, there often will be departments on campus who are maybe posting both in Workday and Handshake. Um, so continue to look in Handshake for opportunities as well. Just didn't wanna leave out poor Handshake in here.

Dani Lauer:

Yes. Handshake still a great resource. Yes, yes. Lots of opportunities there

Megan Riksen:

And many other things in Handshake too that you can do. Absolutely. As opposed to Workday. So yes. Um, definitely you wanna still be in there. Great. Okay. So hopefully you all have learned a lot about what an on-campus job is, how to apply, and hopefully your mind Yeah. Has been opened a little bit to, to all the different opportunities. So I just wanna say thank you one more time to Molly for joining us.

Dani Lauer:

Thank you so much, Molly.

Megan Riksen:

And as always, if you have any questions about applying for jobs, writing resumes, any of the things that you might need to do to get ready to apply for an on-campus job, please feel free to stop into Career Lab. We would be so happy to help. You can find our hours on our website, which we will link in the show notes. So thank you so much to everyone for listening, and we hope you tune into a future episode soon.