Funded Positions in the Community
Empower Students. Strengthen Your Community.
At the University of South Florida, we believe in the power of collaboration between education and community impact. The Community-Based Federal Work Study (FWS) Program offers local non-profit and public service organizations a unique opportunity to host student workers whose wages are funded by federal financial aid.
This is more than just a job opportunity, it is a partnership that develops future professionals while supporting your organization’s mission.
What is the Community-Based FWS Program?
The Community-Based Federal Work-Study (FWS) program enables eligible students to use their FWS award to support community partners while enhancing their own career readiness. Through this program, community partners act as co-educators, guiding students in developing valuable skills for their future careers. FWS offers financial support for part-time employment or internships to students with financial need, providing them with an opportunity to earn money to help cover educational expenses.
Students must be eligible to receive a FWS stipend to participate in this program. This will be indicated in their Financial Aid package, which they can find in their MyUSF portal.
Does my organization qualify to be part of the program?
To qualify as community service, the student job position must be within a field that is considered accessible, open, and beneficial to the wider community. Community service positions span a broad range of industries and sectors.
To be an eligible community-based FWS partner, your organization must:
- Be a nonprofit or government agency
- Offer work that benefits the public good
- Provide supervised, meaningful work experience
- Be able to track hours and sign off on student timesheets
- Comply with all federal, state, and institutional policies
The program welcomes non-profit or government agencies within the following areas:
- Healthcare
- Childcare
- Literacy training
- Education
- Welfare
- Social services
- Transportation
- Housing and neighborhood improvement
- Public safety
- Crime prevention and control
- Recreation
- Rural development
- Community improvement
- Support to students (other than those of the institution itself) with disabilities, mentoring, tutoring, supporting recreational activities, and counseling
Would the position be a part-time job or an internship?
This Community-Based Federal Work Study (FWS) Program is open to part-time positions, which may have traditionally been volunteer positions or internship opportunities. An internship is professional entry-level work and a hands-on training experience. It provides a career focus with career-relevant transferrable skill sets for a student whose career goals and education are aligned with that career target. Many part-time positions meet these criteria and can be transitioned into an FWS internship.
Not all positions will (or should) be translated into internships, but if the opportunity presents itself, it will be to the benefit to the organization and the student to translate the opportunity to an internship. The Internship position should be developed prior to the term for which the intern is desired so that they can be posted prior to the end of the term before the internship begins. In other words, plan and post in the summer or even late spring to recruit an intern for a fall internship, or discuss the option with current employees. An internship enhances positions that were formerly generic student employment positions to provide students with career-relevant internship experiences in the community.
Internships offer students:
- Supervision by a professional who is knowledgeable in the subject matter area (a subject matter expert) in the area the student will be working
- The opportunity of accessing their experience through self-assessment, training workshops, competency training alignment, supervisor feedback, etc.
- Career-relevant work experience aligned with the student’s career/academic goals
- An opportunity to earn internship course credit
Some internships may qualify students to enroll in an internship course for 0-6 credit hours. The Center for Career & Professional Development offers an internship elective course for students in any major –IDS 3947. The benefits of the internship course include:
- Having your internship on your transcripts
- Developing transferrable essential skills that can help you build and launch your career
- Feedback to support your growth as a professional
- A campus resource if/when you need support during your internship
IDS 3947 – Cooperative Internship – Course details:
- Can be taken for 0-6 credits and repeated for up to 6 credits (the 0 credit option is helpful when the internship is unpaid and there are no fees if taken for 0 credits)
- Can be used for internships that are on or off campus and for global internships
- Credits may serve as elective credit and do not count as “excess” credits
- Available on regular or alternate course schedules, so if your internship starts after add/drop, you can still enroll!
- Review the qualifying experiences information
If students would like to register for the IDS 3947 Internship Course, the first step is to request a permit by completing our permit request form. The request will be routed to the appropriate contact in the CCPD for the home campus.
Please note: Students must already have an internship offer when requesting a permit for the course.
