UNC-Chapel Hill junior Jess Chen loves her job.
She is a senior project coordinator in the New Student and Family Programs office on campus, and although she said it doesn’t align with her specific career or academic interest, it has given her valuable experience.
"I just enjoy the job itself because it requires a lot of direct communication between me and new students and their family members and helping them with whatever they might need,” Chen said.
But if Chen attended a different university, she might have a different job.
Clemson University is one of several colleges developing programs that change the nature of on-campus employment. Clemson’s University Professional Internship/Co-op Program matches students who apply with on-campus jobs directly related to their majors, Troy Nunamaker, Clemson's director of internship programs, said.
“It’s an academic program," Nunamaker said. "So the purpose is to engage that student in their own field to give them exposure to what they’re studying.”
Nunamaker said when the program started in the spring of 2012, there were 20 students who participated. This year there are over 1,000 students.
“If you look at the university as not just an institute of higher learning, but as an organization — a living, breathing organization — we have professionals working on campus that represent pretty much every major on campus,” he said.
Students are paid during their internships, and receive a pass or no-pass grade on their transcript — although the internship does not include class credit hours.