Providing High-Impact Student Employment

Student employees are an essential element of Stewart Library’s success. They perform a range of duties: answering patron questions and providing basic research assistance at library service desks, organizing materials to make them accessible to the WSU community, and assisting with exhibits and other programming that reach a wide public audience.

This work is not only essential to maintaining high-quality library services, it is also a high-impact educational experience (HIEE) for students. Library staff and faculty train and mentor students in research skills, customer service, digital and other emerging technologies, information organization and classification, teamwork, and oral and written communication. These skills and practices are essential learning outcomes in all WSU majors and directly transferable to a wide range of professional fields.

Expanding Educational Opportunities

A high-impact student employment fund of $60,000 per year will enable Stewart Library to sustain and expand our student employment program. With this level of funding, we can offer more professional development opportunities, including a job shadowing program where students can work in multiple library departments and receive training in developing ePortfolios to communicate their skills for future employers.

The fund will also enable the library to provide more specialized opportunities:

  • Internships for communication, marketing and technical writing students to assist with library projects that require strong written and visual communication skills.
  • Internships in Special Collections and University Archives focused on oral history, digitizing fragile print materials and exhibit design. Students from all majors will benefit from the information literacy, analytical, communication and creative skills required for these kinds of projects.
  • Peer learning and tutoring positions. Students will be trained in high-level library and information research skills and provide one-on-one assistance to students across the university and be embedded in key writing and research-intensive courses across the curriculum. In addition to learning valuable information literacy skills, students will also receive training in teaching and pedagogy.

A one-time gift of $300,000 would provide five years of funding, or a permanent endowment can be established with a gift of $1.5 million.

Wildcat Spotlight

Prabin Khanal is a student from Nepal who plans to study nursing at WSU. His job in Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) has been an educational introduction to work in the U.S. and helped him form relationships on campus.

“SCUA is the first real job I have ever had. Coming from Nepal, at SCUA, I learned the American way of doing things. I learned the value of time, and the importance of punctuality.

“As an aspiring nurse, I understand the value of human connection. The connections I have built inside the walls of SCUA with my coworkers and my supervisors are going to be an important lesson for my nursing practice. Data entry, working with computers, technology, are all transferable skills at any workplace. Similarly, transcribing oral histories has improved my hearing and my ability to grasp what other people are trying to say.”

Support high-impact student employment by making a gift today.

To learn more about Stewart Library's student employment program,
contact a Weber State University development director.