Purdue Profiles: David Reseigh
March 24, 2015
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David Reseigh, assistant director of outreach services in the Division of Financial Aid. (Purdue University photo/Mark Simons) |
Every academic year, anywhere from 1,000 to 1,500 Purdue students snag part-time jobs to help them offset the cost of college -- and it's all thanks to the work of David Reseigh and the staff in Student Employment Services.
Reseigh is assistant director of outreach services in the Division of Financial Aid. Along with many other duties, he is in charge of the division's Job Location and Development Program, which helps students find part-time jobs while they attend Purdue.
How does the Job Location and Development Program work?
Through our program, which is an offshoot of the federal work-study program, we maintain a student jobs board on the Division of Financial Aid's website. I work with on- and off-campus employers to develop and list their job openings on it. We have a database of about 350 employers; our goal is to have at least 100 postings on the jobs board at any given time.
What sort of jobs and employers are listed on the site?
The jobs are all part-time, hourly jobs, and the type of employers varies widely. Most are local. Some examples are retail businesses, restaurants and public entities, such as the Tippecanoe County Public Library and the West Lafayette Public Library. We also post tutoring positions for a lot of the public schools in the area.
We maintain strict control over the jobs board to make sure that the job postings are from responsible employers. For instance, we require employers to submit all job postings to us for review before we post them. We also require employers to submit an equal opportunity employment form to ensure that their hiring practices are not discriminatory.
Some of the jobs posted on our board are for federal work-study-eligible students, meaning that students with qualifying incomes can take them and the government will pay 70 percent of their wage, with the employer paying 30 percent. While most of the part-time jobs on our board are not work-study-eligible, some are, including the jobs at public libraries, schools and some area nonprofits.
How does working a part-time job benefit students?
The biggest thing is that it helps them offset their costs of attending college. But beyond that, research shows that students who work 12-15 hours each week while taking classes often get better grades than their peers. I think it's because students with part-time jobs learn better time-management skills -- they learn what they need to do to balance their coursework, their job and their free time.
Almost every part-time job allows students to learn some transferable job skills that will help them in their later careers. Part-time jobs sometimes allow students to learn leadership skills, people skills and decision-making skills, among other skills, and they can help build students' resumes.
What are some of your other job duties?
I coordinate the Division of Financial Aid's outreach efforts. This covers a variety of programs, many of which we participate in partnership with Admissions. We do information sessions for admitted students, financial literacy sessions, FAFSA sessions for prospective students and their families, and many more. During 2013-14, we participated in 136 outreach sessions that involved a total of more than 18,000 attendees. I'm also in charge of the Division of Financial Aid's publications that go to prospective and admitted students.
What is your professional background?
I have a bachelor's degree in horticulture from Purdue and a master's degree in management from Indiana Wesleyan University. Before I came to Purdue in 1998, I worked in a variety of jobs related to human resources and employment. Just before joining the University, I was working for a local entity in a grant-funded job within the local high schools system, and I came to a campus job fair looking for employment opportunities for my school's at-risk and special needs youth.
It was then that Purdue's Human Resources told me about a new opening in the Division of Financial Aid doing work very similar to what I do now. It was great timing, because the grant for my job was about to expire.
For me, this job has been very enjoyable and rewarding. I love coming to work every day and getting to engage with a variety of people, from students looking for jobs, to employers, to prospective students and their parents. It's wonderful to see the excitement of students and parents when they realize just how the Division of Financial Aid can help them.
