Vision

Students who participate in the student employment program will be welcomed into a work experience that  encourages and supports their personal agency and responsibility to make a difference in the workplace, on  campus, and in the broader world. 

Mission

Student employees leverage the professional, technical, and interpersonal dynamics of work study roles at Luther to  build core competencies that can flourish and flex for a lifetime. Supervisors challenge and support student  employees to facilitate their development through mentoring and performance evaluation. 

Guiding Principles

As a result of their work study experience, students will:

■ Learn Actively       ▲ Live Purposefully    ● Lead Courageously 

     ■ Learn to navigate and appreciate the organizational landscape. 

     ■ Embrace a life filled with rapid change. 

     ▲ Connect vocation to service. 

     ▲ Articulate their value beyond salary/dollar measurements. 

     ● Make personal projects that are socially and organizationally      compelling. 

     ▲ ● Work for equity and justice–both locally & globally. 

     ▲ ● Build and maintain personal relationships marked with empathy.

     ■ ▲ Cultivate networking skills for professional objectives. 

     ■ ▲ ● Consider and realize sustainability in their endeavors. 

     ■ ▲ ● Develop intercultural fluency and engage others in a culturally responsive way.

     ■ ▲ ● Discover, affirm, and apply their strengths.

Aims

The work-study program provides students the opportunity to discover, practice, and develop essential career readiness skills. Students will develop the following career readiness skills in all work-study positions: 

• Career & Life Management: Cultivate awareness of the world’s needs and develop an awareness of self and what  they can offer. Identify and articulate one’s skills, strengths, knowledge, and experiences relevant to the position  desired and career goals, and identify areas necessary for professional growth. The individual is able to navigate  and explore job options, understands and can take the steps necessary to pursue opportunities, and understands  how to self-advocate for opportunities in the workplace. 
• Ethical Decision Making: Demonstrate integrity and ethical behavior, act responsibly with the interests of the  larger community in mind, and is able to learn from their mistakes. Students are mindful of the ethical issues that  confront us in our lives as learners and citizens.
• Professionalism & Initiative: Demonstrate personal accountability and effective work habits, e.g., punctuality,  working productively with others, and time workload management, and understand the impact of non-verbal  communication on professional work image.  

Through the varied work-related responsibilities and settings, students will develop many of the following career  readiness skills: 

• Agility and Adaptability: Cultivate a flexible and proactive approach to problem solving independently and on  teams that embraces skills and disciplines as evolving and as intersecting with other disciplines and skills. Grasp  the robust general education plus major and minor programs as preparation for a future of creative retraining  and multifaceted production of opportunities, research, and proposals.
• Critical Thinking/Problem Solving: Exercise sound reasoning to analyze issues, make decisions, and overcome  problems. The individual is able to obtain, interpret, and use knowledge, facts, and data in this process, and may  demonstrate originality and inventiveness. 
• Curiosity and Imagination: Cultivate an attitude of lifelong learning that is fueled by a sense of wonder and  leads to asking questions, seeking information, and developing new ideas. The individual can identify current  ways of thinking or working that could be improved upon, and takes the initiative to propose creative solutions. 
• Digital Fluency: Leverage existing digital technologies ethically and efficiently to solve problems, complete  tasks, and accomplish goals. The individual demonstrates effective adaptability to new and emerging  technologies. 
• Intercultural Fluency: Value, respect, and learn from diverse cultures, races, ages, genders, sexual orientations,  and religions. The individual demonstrates openness, inclusiveness, sensitivity, and the ability to interact  respectfully with all people and understand individuals’ differences.
• Leadership: Leverage the strengths of others to achieve common goals, and use interpersonal skills to coach and  develop others. The individual is able to assess and manage their emotions and those of others; use empathetic  skills to guide and motivate; and organize, prioritize, and delegate work. 
• Oral/Written Communication: Articulate thoughts and ideas clearly and effectively in written and oral forms to  persons inside and outside of the organization. The individual has public speaking skills; is able to express ideas  to others; and can write/edit memos, letters, and complex technical reports clearly and effectively. 
• Teamwork/Collaboration: Build collaborative relationships with colleagues and customers representing diverse  cultures, races, ages, genders, religions, lifestyles, and viewpoints. The individual is able to work within a team  structure, and can negotiate and manage conflict. 

Domains of Career Readiness: These domains of career readiness provide students context and language around  the skills they develop. 

• Interpersonal: Students successfully navigate the many different environments in which they are engaged–from  work to the classroom to the fields and stages and to the unique locations they invest their time and energy. The  skills support and enhance a student’s capacity to learn actively, live purposefully, and lead courageously. 
• Critical Thinking: Encompasses the skills, values, and habits of mind that generate effective, just, and responsive  decisions and actions. Students must have the capacity to assess situations, gather and interpret information, and  problem solve. 
• Civic Engagement: Skills and competencies support purposeful engagement in the community through various  means whether as individuals or in groups and teams. Cultural fluency and capacity to respond to situations that  arise is a core skill. Students seek to be courageous leaders locally, regionally, and globally. 
• Practical Competence: Key skills that position a student to make a difference in their work and their communities. Responsiveness to the needs of the community, the ability to change and adapt, and to constructively communicate their ideas and needs are essential to the functioning of a community. Effective use of  digital technology to communicate ideas, to improve processes, or to solve problems. 

Sources: Naceweb.org. (2020). Career Readiness Defined. [online] Available at: https://www.naceweb.org/career-readiness/competencies/career readiness-defined/ [Accessed 13 Feb. 2020]. Wagner, Tony (2012). The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need-and What  We Can Do About It [Kindle version]. Retrieved from amazon.com