August 30, 2022 by

Let’s be real. College is expensive. So are clothes and food and weekend plans with friends. Thankfully, there are many job opportunities on campus, including working in the dining hall, Chick-fil-A, Tossed, Stinger’s, the bookstore, the library, IT, and many others. Of course, there are also jobs off campus — that may even pay more — but here’s why you should really consider on-campus jobs first: 

It’s Practical 

Not everyone has a car on campus and can drive to work at Wal-Mart 20 minutes away, and even those who have cars surely cringe at the current gas prices. The beauty of on-campus jobs is that they are on campus. You don’t have to worry about owning a car or paying for expensive gas since you can just walk to your job like you would to class. Another plus: You don’t waste time with a long commute. Not to mention, your superiors at Cedarville jobs understand you are first-and-foremost a student, and they will help make a work schedule that fits around your classes and extracurriculars. 

A Wider Community 

That leads into another great perk: community. Since the majority of employees working on-campus jobs are students, this gives you a great opportunity to connect with people you never would have had a chance to meet otherwise. Working on campus broadens your circle and increases your chances of seeing familiar and friendly faces around campus. The same goes for full-time, non-student employees. The adults who devote their time to helping Cedarville flourish are some of the kindest and most hard-working people you will ever meet. Serving alongside them can help you get a better understanding of what it takes to run campus operations. 

Learning the Inner Workings of Cedarville 

Learning about the inner workings of Cedarville University is a facet of on-campus jobs many students overlook or don’t consider at all. But it is SO worth it. Whether you’re working at the post office and learning how to process and distribute packages from parents to their children, working in the library helping students find books before finals, or working in the dining hall and assisting with set-up, serving, and clean-up, you will have impressive knowledge into a particular side of Cedarville. 

Deeper Respect for Faculty and Staff 

I’m sure you already have respect for the hard-working people at Cedarville, but working on campus helps you understand the lengths the full-time staff take to make your stay at this college enjoyable. There are some things you just never consider until stepping into the faculty’s shoes and learning from them — such as the importance of putting library books on the cart instead of back on the shelves or the issues caused when people try to take their leftovers into to-go boxes at the dining hall. Working on campus will help you be more considerate towards full-time and student-workers from every job on campus, and in turn will help you learn to serve with compassion during your 1,000 days at Cedarville and after. 

Cultivating a Servant’s Heart 

As you know, Cedarville is a Christian university where students, professors, and staff are believers who try to live and love like Jesus. When you work on campus, you not only have the chance to serve the student body, but you also get to serve alongside and learn from other strong believers. Working at Cedarville is not just about making money, it’s about community, integrity, ministry, and loving people like God first loved us. 

My Own Experience 

I am now going into my junior year at Cedarville, and for the past two years I have worked in the dining hall as a cashier and part of the clean-up crew. Some freshmen decide they don’t want to work their first year on campus, and that’s OK, but if you have the time for even one shift a week, I would say to go for it! I only worked three hours a week my first semester, but I still benefited from all the perks I’ve listed above, and it added some variety to my semester’s schedule. I met other students from all sorts of majors, learned about the behind-the-scenes jobs and inner workings of the dining hall’s kitchen, grew to care even more for the hard-working full-time employees there, and developed a heart for serving others even when it’s not easy. If you have a love for Cedarville and the people there, and wish to serve and love like Jesus, then give working on campus a try! There’s always room for you. 

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