[nabs-l] Part time/campus jobs
Kaiti Shelton
crazy4clarinet104 at gmail.com
Thu Jul 14 21:26:33 UTC 2016
Hi all,
Thanks so much for your suggestions. What is really tripping me up is
the fact that I'm in a different academic position now, being a part
time student. I've done some more digging and found a few things:
Telecounselors are only hired as full-time students, so being part
time I don't qualify.
Tutoring is only for certain gen ed subjects, but you need faculty
recommendations and a certain GPA in the course. My strongest
knowledge base is in psychology, but it could potentially be
problematic because I took AP psych in my junior year of high school
and therefore don't have a GPA for the class.
Music tutoring/teaching. This is unfortunately not going to work for
a few reasons. My department requires any student who wants to teach
to gain approval from their applied instructor, and not that I
couldn't do it for a beginning student, but as I've got to give my
recital this semester I think my instructor would prefer I focus on my
own playing. I'd agree with her there, but it could work next
semester potentially as something on the side. I also could do basic
music tutoring perhaps for younger school kids, but tutoring for
courses like music therory is also handled by the department. Each
year the top two students who have finished the theory sequence of
classes are offered tutoring positions, so it's more selective and you
don't really have the option to apply to just tutor theory 1 or theory
1 and 2 (the ones I was good at). Sadly, music history,
ethnomusicology, and the pedagogy classes I really excelled in and
found interesting don't have tutoring offered, and though I think it
would be a great idea for some of these classes to have TA positions
they don't really do that much in our department.
The DS office is still up for consideration, and I know they have jaws
available to put on the work station. I almost applied for an office
position there a few years ago, and I think the only thing my DS
counselor said I couldn't do would be filing papers and making copies,
but I could use Abby Fine Reader to edit textbooks, sign students in
and out for testing, work the phones, and run test delivery across
campus. She said that if I took the job my inability to work with
filing print papers wouldn't be a problem and it could be left for
sighted team members to do on their time, while I perhaps took on a
little more book editing responsibilities or delivered more tests. As
for the potential negative perceptions about working in the DS office
as a disabled student, I'm not too worried there as my career will
also involve working with people who have disabilities too anyway; I'm
already heading down that path so why not? :)
Tour guide is something I've actually gotten a pretty good response
about when I mentioned it to a prof. I'm not the stereotypical tour
guide for sure, but they said I definitely know the campus and have
the enthusiasm for it. Honestly my major might be my biggest obstacle
there, as I know they typically try to get guides in the majors that
they want to talk up, like engineering, education, and business.
Looking off campus-I found a position at the local Easter Seals
facility that could be promising if all works out. I plan to call
career services tomorrow to discuss this as well as the on campus
options, and will see what they think.
On 7/13/16, Karl Martin Adam via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hi Kaiti,
>
> I second the tutoring suggestion. You might also look in to
> being a teaching assistant if your college has those. ANother
> thing you could try is being a research assistent for one of the
> professors. There would probably be accessibility challenges to
> working in say a biology lab, but I would imagine that it would
> be relatively easy to do this in psychology, and since you're a
> minor you probably know professors you could talk to about being
> their research assistent.
>
> Best,
> Karl
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "STOMBERG, KENNEDY via NABS-L" <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> Date sent: Wed, 13 Jul 2016 18:01:14 -0500
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Part time/campus jobs
>
> Hello, Kaiti,
>
> I tutored at my college, and there were no access barrious, and
> I loved
> it! The Academic Acheivement Office at my school kept track of
> who was
> tutoring who, and I got the phone numbers of my tutees, so we
> scheduled
> appointments that way. I loved it, because that way, my tutees
> could text
> me questions at ay time, especially before a test. This was
> something that
> the Academic Acheivement Office at my college did for every
> student, not
> just me. So, if you want to tutor, and your schinol has weird
> software like
> Ashley's, you might be able to schedule appointments this way.
>
> Being a tourguiee might also be a lovely option, especially if
> you know
> your campus. You expressed a concern that you might not be what
> your school
> is looking for. But I think you she apply anyway. Admissions
> offices are
> always looking for a variety of students to give tours.
>
> Bottom line, if you think you can be successful at a job, just
> apply for
> it! The worst they can say is no, right?
>
> Good luck!
> Kennedy Stomberg
>
> On Wed, Jul 13, 2016 at 4:57 PM, Ashley Bramlett via NABS-L <
> nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> I did not qualify for work study but was eligible for part time
> work at my
> university, Marymount university.
> I had some of the same barriers you faced. I thought about
> working at the
> dorm desk as they needed desk staff to sign in visitors or
> student guests
> to the dorm.
> I did not apply because the job was too visual such as needing
> to check
> Ids at night. After midnight, you were supposed to scan your ID
> and show
> the desk worker.
> If your school has information desk jobs where you mainly answer
> questions, this may be a good fit.
>
> Tutoring may be an option. When I tried that at Northern
> Virginia
> community college though, the software system to track our
> tutees was
> partly inaccessible. Other tutors could make appointments but I
> could not.
> I was let go of that position for another reason though.
> So, just be aware that tutoring may have access challenges too.
>
> You might want to see if working in the front desk of some
> offices is
> doable. It depends on the duties and if they use paper forms.
>
> Good luck in finding a job.
>
> Ashley
> -----Original Message----- From: Kaiti Shelton via NABS-L
> Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2016 1:35 AM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Cc: Kaiti Shelton
> Subject: [nabs-l] Part time/campus jobs
>
> Hi all,
>
> I'm wondering if some of you who have done work study programs
> at your
> universities could weigh in on this. Being just 13 credits shy
> of
> earning my degree, I'll be a part time student this year. I'd
> like to
> find a part time job on campus and do qualify for work study,
> but
> there are also a lot of businesses within walking distance or a
> short
> bus ride of campus that I could get to. My issue is that I'm
> having
> difficulty finding something that I think I can do throughout
> the
> semester for a few hours each week that is accessible. I had a
> somewhat disastrous experience in my sophomore year with work
> study,
> where I was hired to work in the computer lab for my department
> and
> eventually was let go because due to an inaccessible main work
> station
> I wasn't doing anything beyond babysitting the place (while that
> was a
> big part of the job and the lab needed to be superfvised and
> cleaned
> regularly, I wasn't able to edit and catalog the audio and video
> files
> which are processed in the lab as well). A lot of the readily
> available jobs I'm seeing in the listings are in cafeteria food
> prep,
> and I'm slightly hesitant to apply for desk jobs because while I
> do
> have secretarial and receptionist experience it has only been at
> blindness agencies that made sure to supply braille extension
> lists
> and the like. I know work study is practice for the real world,
> and
> since I qualify for it I have just as much as a claim to a work
> study
> position as a sighted student would, but a lot of the jobs seem
> to be
> things that present with accessibility barriers that staff will
> not be
> invested in sorting out for a short-term student employee, and
> I'm not
> sure if battling them for it is really worth it if I can find
> something that doesn't require so much effort just to get my
> foot in
> the door. I'm also looking for something that goes all semester
> long;
> the telethon positions were an idea I was going to pursue, but
> they
> tend to have pique times of the semester and not do much else.
>
> I will say that my university has a wonderful disability
> services
> office who I know would help with accessibility where they can.
> In
> the last case there were legitimate reasons for the
> accessibility
> being an issue that was just beyond anyone's control, but both
> the DS
> office and the music department made a good effort to give me
> equal
> work opportunities before we saw how unreasonable that would be
> for a
> simple work study position. I also know what my rights are and
> how I
> should be equally treated, but going into my last few classes
> and
> prepping for my internship to follow, I really just don't want
> to
> fight a long and hard battle to get into a job to make maybe $50
> extra
> each week. Maybe some would agree, but thinking ahead to my
> next
> steps after college, I'm just not all that invested in
> potentially
> fighting the good fight like I know I may have to do in the true
> employment arena. I'm wondering if anyone has experience or
> positive
> ideas of jobs that might be innately accessible or easily made
> accessible. I'd prefer campus jobs but I'm willing to look out
> in the
> community as well; I just know the majority of things like food
> prep
> and waitressing are probably going to be hard for me to score,
> as
> would be working in any type of store since products move and I
> can't
> read the packaging.
>
> Tutoring is something I've already considered, and if I can find
> a
> receptionist position that doesn't have a ton of print filing I
> could
> potentially do that. I know the dorms need desk workers and
> have a
> sign in sheet, but I might even be able to make the students
> fill out
> paperwork more than usual and accommodate that way. What
> worries me
> about that position is that the desk workers have to be a little
> vigilant for anything shady that goes on, and I'm worried that
> the
> potential for someone to take advantage of that would be very
> real and
> considered a liability. My other idea that I'm still thinking
> of is
> tour guide. I don't know if I'd get hired to do that one
> because they
> tend to go for the stereotypical campus pride type of kids, and
> although I don't make a bad poster child for my school I
> certainly am
> out of the norm. Still, I know my campus and all its little
> shortcuts
> very well and as long as I could get hired, I think I could do
> that.
> I'm still interested in hearing what has worked for others in
> case
> none of these leads pan out. Thanks in advance.
>
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--
Kaiti Shelton
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