Learn While You Earn: The Value of Student Workers

Many of us experienced working on campus while we were in college. It was a time for us to make a little money in a professional job while going to school. There usually weren’t specific jobs we were looking for, but just on-campus jobs that would work with our school schedule.  It seemed pretty ordinary and not very significant at the time. But, in reality, it does have significance and value.

Grand Canyon University’s Office of Strategic Educational Alliances has been blessed with many talented individuals with vast experiences in education and business. To be honest, we’ve got a powerhouse team with some very impressive backgrounds that contribute to the success of Strategic Educational Alliances (SEA). But, our success also rests in the valuable contributions of our student workers. We would not be able to accomplish all that we do if it wasn’t for these individuals in our department.

Our student workers lead an education program each week for students in grades 7 and 8, give campus tours for schools, develop process improvements, organize and keep track of flyers and communications, assist with events, host a GCU booth at education conferences, learn new programs to help in daily tasks and many other things. They are real assets to our team!

One of the benefits of my job has been to work with our team’s student workers on various projects and tasks. It brings me back to when I was a student worker and someone “walked” alongside me to understand how to do business, learn new things and grow professionally.  I didn’t really know what I didn’t know so the person whom I worked with was like a business mentor.

One day I told one of our student workers about my experience when I had started a job and how my coworker’s input was so beneficial and helped shape me professionally. It’s true for every single one of us: Someone took time to teach us the ropes of how to be a valuable contributor professionally. I would bet that you would say it was indeed significant and valuable to have that person in your life at that specific time.

Though all of us on the SEA team are business mentors to our student workers, I have the opportunity to work side by side with them on a daily basis. Each of our student workers has brought their own set of skills and knowledge to our team and they have been extremely helpful in our team’s success. They are willing to learn new things and take on mundane, everyday tasks. We even get the benefit of getting their perspective when suggesting how to resolve or improve something. It has been a delight to work with our student workers and walk alongside them!

Bethany, Jordan and Kaitlynn, you are a huge asset to our team and one that we value very much. I have no doubt that each one of you will succeed in whatever you do in the future because of your valuable skills, enthusiasm, personalities, creativity and can-do attitudes. Thank you for being an important part of our team!

More about Dina Lundblom:

Dina Lundblom is the K-12 coordinator for the Strategic Educational Alliances at Grand Canyon University. The K-12 team is dedicated to providing exceptional educational events for students, parents and educators in our community for continued academic success. Dina’s role focuses on the details and planning of these events to ensure a positive and inspiring occasion at GCU. Dina worked over 22 years in a leading consumer products company with responsibilities in various sales, marketing and category management roles. After 23 years in business, Dina had the opportunity to move into the education sector by assisting the principal at a Title I school. It is there that she became intrigued and passionate about the role education plays in communities. Dina wanted to remain in the education sector, utilizing her diverse experience in business and education and working with students and educators at Grand Canyon University. Dina has seen the impact of education and how teachers, principals, youth leaders and caring adults help mold and shape kids’ lives, and she loves being part of that in some way. It makes a difference to individuals, but also to our communities, organizations, towns and cities. Dina is excited to be a part of it at GCU.