The impact of the Federal Work-Study Program at the Wilson Joint Unified School District???s (WJUSD) After School Education and Safety (ASES) Program

Thesis (M.A., Education (Higher Education Leadership)) -- California State University, Sacramento, 2012.Community Service-Learning (CSL) is one of the most pervasive education innovations of the past generation and has demonstrated much success in connecting schooling with community service. The growth of CSL in the US is due to the work of Campus Compact, a national coalition of college and university presidents supporting student education for responsible citizenship. It is a form of experiential learning in which education is reinforced by community service (Hunter & Brisbin, 2000). Participation in CSL as part of college has been found to have more positive benefits for students than does participating in typical volunteer community service (Vogelgesang & Astin, 2000).\ud \ud Working while enrolled is perhaps a major activity among America???s diverse undergraduate population. According to the Department of Education (2010), 85% of student workers are employed off-campus working, on average, 27 hours per week. Consequently, this study was conducted to better understand the impact of the off-campus Federal Work-Study (FWS) Program at Wilson Joint Unified School District ASES Program. To date, there has not been a formal evaluation done of the FWS program and its affect at the district. \ud \ud Multiple searches and search strategies were employed addressing the relationship between student employment and higher education outcomes. This included an examination of educational and psychological databases (ERIC) available through the library system at California State University, Sacramento. \ud After the review of on-line articles, interview questions were generated based on the collected information from previous student employment studies. In order to gather the necessary data, the descriptive method was used, employing the qualitative approach. \ud \ud Although CSL opportunities are often offered as part of an academic course experience (e.g. Butcher & Hall, 1998; Kretchmar, 2001), CSL does not have to be linked to a specific course. Gray (2000) suggests that the development of institutional service activities provides quality educational experiences for students while simultaneously offering benefits to the college.Education (Higher Education Leadership