1. Redefining the Student Employment Experience
Leila Jacobs, Student Life Coordinator
Mindy Kinnaman, Manager of Student Life
Johnson County Community College

2. Howdy!
Leila: bookstore clerk, writing tutor, assistant editor of Poetry International, copyright coordinator, graduate teaching assistant
Mindy: paint crew; resident assistant; housing office assistant; business manager, assignment editor and copy editor of Griffon Yearbook

3. The JCCC Model Student Ambassadors Student Activities Ambassadors
Student Admissions Ambassadors
Student Engagement Ambassadors
Student Involvement Ambassadors
Student Activities
Office of Student Life
15 students
Plans campus activities
Serves as college operator and staffs welcome desks
Student Admissions
Office of Admissions
10 students
Provide campus tours
Promote JCCC on and off campus
Call incoming and prospective students
Student Engagement
Student Life
11 students
Oversee Student Lounge & Campus Center
Plan events for current students
Provide outreach and support for classes and campus departments
Student Involvement
1 students
Provides outreach and support for clubs and organizations
Co-facilitates Inter-Club Council

4. The JCCC Model
History of JCCC Student Life Ambassadors

5. The JCCC Model Selection Process Full-time students with a 2.0 GPA
Targeted hiring questions
Peers Hiring Peers
Diversity and inclusion
We look at students’ strengths based upon questions regarding our daily office duties, how they interact with others, knowledge of and involvement on campus
Student ambassadors serve on hiring committees to help us determine who would be the best fit for our team
Diverse pool of applicants, which reflects our student body and its diversity
Conscious of our own privilege so that we are able to put aside any biases and truly look at the candidates based upon their skills
We have been very fortunate in that the students we hire come from a wide variety of classifications, which allows our staff to reflect all of the students who attend JCCC
Because we have students who speak many different languages, we are able to serve a multitude of students in their native language

6. The JCCC Model What makes us different? Programming Peer-Mentoring
Leadership Development
Outreach Opportunities
We realize that many schools employ students. We empower our students to be active, engaged leaders. While there may some routine duties, for the most part, their work is up to what they would like to accomplish.
Duties
Program design is not standard. Students plan educational activities based upon their own interests, as well as the interests of their peers, utilizing campus departments, professors, and clubs. Programs run the gamut from Black Friday Shopping featuring JCCC Fashion Merchandising & Design to an Ask Me Anything featuring Muslim Student Association to bringing in local business professionals to share business trends and success stories with the JCCC Business Department.
Peer-mentoring is done both on a class and individual level. The ambassadors routinely visit classes throughout the semester to share information on how to be successful students. The ambassadors provide outreach for the Early Alert program, contacting students with attendance issues to determine how they can help. The ambassadors also work with departments such as Access Services to meet individually with students to help them adjust to college.
With regard to leadership development, the involvement ambassador prepares regular presentations designed to help student leaders improve their skills and learn topics such as problem-solving, conflict resolution, and club success.
One of the most unique parts of our position is that the ambassadors are who the college turns to with new ideas and initiatives, as well as whenever students are needed for special projects. The ambassadors have co-facilitated Strengths workshops, served as orientation leaders, and help students enroll in classes. They have been selected to represent the college when visiting with national lawmakers, helped present the JCCC State of the College address, and serve on campus committees for events, projects, and initiatives.
The jobs are always evolving.

7. The JCCC Model Focused Leadership Development Personal Strengths
Clifton StrengthsFinder
Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator
When assigning tasks and responsibilities, we utilize their individual and Clifton Strengths, MBTI.
We encourage staff to let us know what things they would like to accomplish in their roles and help them achieve those goals. We have created new projects and roles for the students based upon their suggestions.
The staff helps facilitate Strengths workshops, which allows them to show their peers how Strengths can be used as students and employees.

8. The JCCC Model Conflict resolution Interpersonal development
Resolving conflict without harming relationships
Verbal Judo

9. The JCCC Model Supervision Evaluation Empowerment
Challenge and Support
Perry’s Scheme of Intellectual and Ethical Development
Evaluation
1-on-1 and team meetings
Community Checkups
Performance Evaluations

10. The JCCC Model Identifying new opportunities for engagement
Collaboration
Ideation

11. The JCCC Model Andrea, ambassador since Aug. 2015
“I absolutely love working on campus for many reasons. It has helped me meet many different students with all sorts of interests! Also, it has helped me to be more involved in activities all over campus. I feel like every day there’s something new and different happening, and I’m very happy and grateful that I can be a part of it!”
“Being an international student, I was a little worried of how my relationships with coworkers were going to be when I first started working on campus, because our cultures were so different, and I just wasn’t sure if that would be a problem. But it took no time for me to feel super comfortable in the office. Everyone was so nice and treated each other with a great amount of respect, always curious about my culture, religion and values, but also very, very respectful. It took me by surprise, but it was definitely a nice one.”
Outcomes –
Andrea, ambassador since Aug. 2015

12. The JCCC Model Anna, ambassador since Jan. 2016
“As I’m working in the Student Lounge, I get more into customer service and event planning and realized how much it influenced my relationships with peers. I started being more understanding and caring about people around me. I have more common interests with my coworkers as we work in the same field now. The only negative thing about working on campus is that you have to leave eventually.”
“I believe that you can not only use your strengths at work but develop them while working as team. For example, in the events team as engagement ambassadors, we are organizing a bunch of interesting events on campus to gather people with similar interests. To execute it well, the team has to separate responsibilities, depending on what each of us can do better or are eager to work on. And I think we succeed.”
Outcomes –
Anna, ambassador since Jan. 2016

13. The JCCC Model
“This job has helped me in more ways that I am really comfortable admitting – self-esteem, confidence, helping establish my character, and of course, realizing what type of person I want to be. Not to mention the many more small things that have helped me. There are no words to describe how thankful and lucky I feel.”
Outcomes –
Daniel, ambassador since Dec. 2015

14. The JCCC Model Why do we do what we do?
*Will provide a handout with further information regarding this slide.

15. The JCCC Model Benefits For the students For the department
For the college

16. Other Models How do you empower student employees?
Open the floor for others to share what they do and how it works