With a new all-time high in attendance of veteran-students on campus, American River College has hired four work-study students to help with enrollment services.
With more than 800 veterans using some form of the Montgomery GI Bill on campus, administration was able to finalize paperwork to get the approval of the work-study program. Positions are fully paid for by the
Department of Veterans Affairs and do not cost anything to ARC.
Applications were e-mailed out to all veterans enrolled within the veteran enrollment counter’s database on Jan. 10. Veteran students who were at least a three-quarter time student and in good academic standing were eligible to apply for the positions until Jan. 20.
“We got an awesome response,” Ben Baird, the Enrollment Services Records and Admissions supervisor, said. “Within an hour we literally had people at the counter asking for applications (and) asking questions about it.”
The positions are hourly-paid positions by the VA, but Baird states that the response the enrollment office received was not a monetarily based decision for students.
“I probably talked to ten different people, and everyone I talked to talk to—they weren’t here for the money. From my sense that wasn’t the point, they wanted to help out or give back,” Baird said.
Positions will be at the veteran’s help desk next to enrollment services and will work side-by-side with the enrollment center certifying officials at the counter.
“We expect to have people trained and in place by summer and fall registration, which starts in April,” Baird said.
The addition of the student work-study will also give the certifying officials time to file financial aid questions as they can be freed from time at the counter for student walk-ins.
“Hopefully this will be a better experience for everyone involved,” Baird said. “This will free up the certifying officials from the counter and they can work on cases.”
