VCU Works Program to help students in need

Plans for the VCU Works Program, which will be launched in January, are under way.

The original plan called for 50 students to be a part of the pilot program, but that number has doubled to 100 students, said S. Jon Steingass, the associate dean for undergraduate academic student affairs.

“What we’re going to do is target two different populations,” he said. “Fifty students will be those who have holds on their records, so they might not be able to attend VCU next semester because of financial troubles.

“We’re also going to target 50 students who might be at risk (of failing or dropping out) for many different reasons.”

Not only will the program help students with debts, but also those students performing poorly on their studies or thinking about leaving the university.

Mark C. Hampton, the assistant vice provost in the Office of Institutional Research, Evaluation and Planning, identified some reasons these particular students make such drastic decisions.

“In particular, there are students who really want to be at VCU,” Hampton said, “but (they) have so many distractions because of their need to work off-campus that they’re having a hard time staying here.”

Martha Green, the assistant to the vice provost for student affairs, discussed the importance of the VCU Works Program in helping students secure jobs that are right for them.

“We are working on helping students develop skills necessary to acquire a position,” Green said. “We are hoping to be able to help them with interviewing skills and resumes just like we do for students who are seeking other jobs.”

Stephen Gottfredson, interim provost, said he worked with a group of administrators to figure out what they can do to keep students at VCU.

“One of the reasons that we began to get really serious about this situation of retention was that the Board of Visitors got serious about the issue,” he said. “Last May, they approved a budget (that could help the university retain students).”

This program, designed just like work-study, will benefit the student more because much of the help and the aid come from VCU rather than from external funding only.

“They (the university) allocated some money to assist our students to be more successful and to assist students to stay at VCU until graduation,” Steingass said.

Once Hampton sat down with Steingass and Gottfredson to work out the funding, the two came up with the VCU Works program.

“We kinda sat down and brainstormed on a basic idea to see if using a structured aid for students is possible,” Hampton said. “At the same time, the provost was going over the issue with unpaid balances and students not being able to graduate. And again we have a promise of financial need, and it is something that we can find bona fide ways of getting students to work to pay off these debts.”

Gottfredson also credited Randall Dahl, associate vice provost for enrollment services, for securing the funds necessary for the program from the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education.

“We asked them for funds to allow this program to work,” Gottfredson said. “If it does not work, we can use the money to develop other programs to help out students.”

Steingass pointed out three components in the VCU Works Program:

* Receiving a high quality on-campus position related to the students’ interests, educational and career aspirations as well as their abilities.

* A mentoring piece where a supervisor may take an active interest in the student.

* Students will receive coaching from an academic mentor and also will attend various seminars and workshops to increase their personal development.

Green explained how the program will connect students with the university.

“It’s really a far-reaching team effort to provide the basis for students to connect with the university, which is here to help them,” Green said. “The faculty and staff participating in the program would help (them) with things that affect (them) not as a student, but as a person as well.”

In a special request via e-mail, Steingass has asked VCU’s faculty members to help implement the program.

“My role in this whole thing is to assist in the administration of the program – the academic mentoring portion of it – providing personal development seminars, coaching sessions, and all that,” he said.

Green and Sue Story, director of the University Career Center, lined up the jobs for the program.

“My part basically is to make sure that students have appropriate access to the positions that are available to them,” Green said. “Sue Story is the one who is really doing the work that is required in the Career Center. That’s where students would go to find positions that are available.”

In the research and evaluation office, Mark Hampton will analyze the progress of the program to obtain the necessary results.

“Our evaluation is going to be emergent,” Hampton said. “If the program works, then we’re gonna provide the kind of analysis and data to show that it’s in the institution’s best interest to go with the program.

“With the limited group of students, it will allow us to see how this program works and if it does, we will find a way to expand it to many students.”

If the program works, students could find it as an opportunity to earn money plus the necessary training and skills to successfully begin their careers when they graduate with their degrees in their hands.

Just how useful, however, will the works program be to the students participating it it?

“It’s going to be a good tool to help give students success and satisfaction here at VCU,” Steingass said.