On-Campus Jobs at Barnard
Hello everyone! I hope you guys are all staying safe and healthy. My name is Jessica de Oliveira Moreira, I am 21 and a rising junior at Barnard. I am from Brazil and I am majoring in Economics and minoring in Education. Today I wanted to talk about work-study at Barnard and my experience working on campus.
Barnard students are allowed to work on campus during their time at Barnard. Some students work on campus with work-study funding called a Barnard College Job Award or Federal Work Study. This funding is awarded to students in their financial aid package. Barnard College Job Awards allow you to work on-campus and Federal Work Study Awards enable you to work on-campus or off-campus at select organizations. This is funding that is available for students to use if they want to. Just because you have the award does not mean you have to use it. Work-study means that you can work on campus using your funding and you will have a preference when finding a job on campus. However, even if you haven’t been awarded the work-study funding, you can still work on campus.
There are several work positions at Barnard and it is likely that you will be able to find a job if you want to work! The positions for work-study and non-work-study vary and include office assistants, tutors, library assistants, research assistants, representatives of the Admission Office (BSAR’s - YAY!), and more. While finding a job on campus, you should take into consideration what positions you would like and invest your effort and time into. In addition to that, having a job on campus is also beneficial to you and your resume, as it adds work experience and shows that you’ve acquired professional skills through your on campus jobs.
For international students, we are only able to work on campus up to twenty hours per week due to the restrictions of the study visa. Moreover, we are not allowed to work off-campus during our first semester, but after that, we can be hired off-campus through the CPT (Curricular Practical Training) or OPT (Optional Practical Training). Even though the process of finding an off-campus job can be stressful for international students, I would highly encourage international and non-international students to take advantage of these off campus opportunities, especially during the summer. Considering that we are living in NYC, there are many great professional opportunities out there for us! And the office of International Students and beyond Barnard is here to provide resources and help you find a job.
During my first year at Barnard, I worked as an office assistant at Beyond Barnard and as a teacher assistant at Tompkins Hall, Columbia’s day care center. These were my first official professional experiences and honestly, I had a great time working in both places! I gained soft and hard skills and at Tompkins Hall and I could interact with kids, which definitely brought me happiness during my freshman year. During my second year, I started working as a peer tutor at Barnard for math-related classes and I have been meeting with students once a week to help them with their homeworks and tests. This past semester I started working as a BSAR and it has been a pleasure to work at the Admissions Office. I have learned a lot through my on-campus jobs and I have no doubts that they have helped me to grow in my professional life. I hope that you could learn more about the working opportunities that Barnard offers on campus and that you feel encouraged to find an on-campus job once you come to Barnard!
-Jessica de Oliveria Moreira