UW-O Students, staff find STEP program beneficial

A new program called the Student Titan Employment Program was created at the beginning of the year as an additional job program to implement a new idea of a well-rounded work experience that may be integrated into all campus jobs.

Created at the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year, STEP was the idea of Chancellor Richard Wells and was further developed by faculty senate, the Oshkosh Student Alliance, the Senate of Academic Staff, and the Staff Advisory Council according to Susan Nuernberg, the chancellor's assistant for strategic planning and office communications. 

The STEP program consists of a group of new jobs on campus that give students hands-on experience by helping professors work on projects through different departments on campus such as the Athletics Department or the Biology Department.

These jobs usually consist of doing research or other projects specified by faculty members from the department the student is working in.

Once the job was posted either through TitanJobs or on fliers around campus, students could apply to work on these projects and be employed by STEP to gain work experience in specific fields that are often related to their major.

Wells said STEP has provided a total of $500,000 in funds that have been dispersed among the 125 students that are in the program. This equals out to about the cost of one semester's tuition per student.

"I was pushing for $1 million [for the program], because this is such a great program and the amount of applications that were submitted showed these types of jobs are in high demand," Wells said.

Nuernberg said UW-Oshkosh worked with the American Association of Colleges and Universities to create the guidelines for the projects in STEP that supported the four ideas of liberal education which are knowledge, skills, responsibility and learning. 

"This program focuses on giving student employees a high impact learning experience by working with faculty in their area of expertise," Nuernberg said. "We are trying to look at all student employment and hope to encourage all areas of learning on the job."

Patricia Wood and Jaclyn Tucker, both Master's students at UW-Oshkosh, sent out a survey to study the difference between STEP students and non-STEP students.

Wood said the survey asked questions about the students' level of commitment and engagement to their job, whether or not they feel their experiences will benefit them in the real world, and if their job is enhancing various learning competencies such as diversity and inclusion, sustainability and critical thinking. 

Neither Wood or Tucker were able to be reached about the results of the survey.

"Overwhelmingly, [the surveys] state that through the  STEP jobs, [students] are getting ‘real world experiences'," Nuernberg said. "Developing higher levels of trust and independence, learning about an academic field in more depth, strengthening their responsibility and critical thinking skills, are being challenged to think and be creative and helpful, learning transferable skills and doing a job that relates to the degree being sought."

Nuernberg also said the decision whether or not to continue the STEP program will be made within the next two weeks.

"I believe the STEP program is very beneficial to students," Wood said. "In my personal experiences, I have gained employment through the University and have been able to take on tasks that are directly related to my major. The STEP program has better prepared me for job searching by improving my resume and work experiences.  If more students could be given the same opportunities, the STEP program should definitely be continued."

Amanda Munger, a STEP student who works with the Integrated Marketing Office, said, "They treat the students the same as the rest of the staff, so I'm not getting anyone coffee."

One of the many pros of this program is the students in it get to work with faculty on projects that could lead to job connections in the future.

"I am getting real-world experience reporting and writing stories for the UW Oshkosh Today website and the alumni magazine, Engage, that will hopefully help me find a job after I graduate," Munger said.

"If the program really is helping improve morale, helping students pay for their education, and enhancing the quality of education, it's hard to argue against it… I will do everything I can with the support of my colleagues to keep this program going," Wells said.