When you visit an office or stop by a front desk around The University of Baltimore’s campus, usually the first person you’ll see smiling back at you is a student employee.
Over the 2025-26 academic year, UBalt had 269 student employees. They’re serving as peer tutors, customer service agents, designers, administrative assistants and lab support, to name a few.
The roles vary but there’s one constant: student employment opportunities benefit everyone on campus.
“I really enjoy working on campus. The convenience of work-study allows me to organize my schedule around my classes, which is wonderful,” said Aria Baker, a B.A. in Digital Communication major serving as student ambassador for UBalt’s Division of Enrollment Management. “And it allows for amazing connections on campus with your peers, professors and staff.”
Students provide much-needed support while also offering invaluable insight about services from their experiences. In return, they find flexible, paid jobs, deeper community connections and a chance to build skills that will serve them outside of UBalt.
“Our offices would not function without our talented student employees,” said Anthony Butler, director of the Rosenberg Center for Student Engagement and Inclusion. “Our student staff are part of our community. They are students we get to know, learn about and work with. We learn a lot from them, and I hope they learn from us, too. What our office gains from working with student employees is immeasurable and watching them walk the stage at the end of their UBalt career is one of the joys of the job.”
As costs from tuition to grocery bills increase nationally, so has demand for on-campus jobs. A 2024 survey of college students, conducted by Generation Lab for Inside Higher Ed, found 63 percent of students want their colleges or universities to offer paid campus opportunities.
A study from Trellis Strategies from 2023 found 68 percent of students balance their coursework with at least a part-time job. The majority of respondents reported that they depend on their current income to pay for college.
At UBalt, available roles vary by office and semester. There are federal work study positions, student assistants, graduate assistants, fellowships, legal scholars and research assistants.
Students find opportunities through emails, networking and career coaches. Most often, their source is UBWorks, the University’s jobs portal managed by the Career and Internship Center.
Browsing the portal is how William Thompson, an MBA student specializing in finance, found his job.
As a front-desk assistant in the Office of the Dean for the College of Public Affairs, he takes calls, answers emails, guides students, connects with professors, and helps with event organization. It’s a lot of one-on-one conversations that his introverted self wasn’t expecting but he’s come to appreciate how the role is preparing him for his future.
“Networking helps. Meeting people in different fields, hearing from their perspectives, also helps. Being just more friendly, more extroverted could help in the finance world,” Thompson said.
A B.A. in Psychology student, Timika Knox feels she’s gaining advantageous career capabilities through her position, too.
As a peer success navigator with the UBalt Connects mentorship program, she gets to point students toward resources, services, opportunities and events that elevate their college experience.
Knox said she’s learned how better to communicate with students and understanding how to meet them where they are. It feels like an ideal fit for her future.
“It’s already put me in position to be prepared for what I'm going to be doing in the future,” she said. “I just feel like it was what I needed.”
Hope Ford, a M.S. in Counseling Psychology student with a background in executive administrative support, has been mixing her talents to support the Office of the Dean for the Merrick School of Business.
“I knew I could offer a different perspective to a world of spreadsheets, strategic planning meetings and corporate partnerships,” she said. “The soft skills I have developed in my Counseling Psychology program help me understand people in many different situations and there's no shortage of human complexity in a business school.”
Alexa Thomas, a third-year University of Baltimore Law student, has been a legal writing fellow and a legal scholar, which is similar to a teaching assistant.
It’s a lot to add to an already busy schedule, but Thomas welcomed the opportunities as a way to pay her appreciation forward. She benefited from extra support in her early classes and assignments and wanted to be that support for others.
It proved fulfilling in more ways than she anticipated.
“I feel like I've become a better teacher, which will make me a better lawyer, because when you are lawyering, you're essentially explaining to your client, to the opposing counsel, and to the court why your position is right,” Thomas said. “Being able to do that in a well-articulated way, being able to cater to a lot of different learning styles, being able to get your point across most effectively, I think, is a really valuable skill.”
Getting positive feedback from the students she’s helped has been an added bonus.
“Having that back-end reward is really valuable, knowing that I was once in their position as well,” Thomas said. “If it wasn't for, like, a writing fellow before me that helped me, like, I might not be where I am today.”
Community connections are an unexpected benefit for many student workers. That’s why Thompson urges others to try a campus job, too.
“I would say it's the best opportunity you could get, because I've met so many people, people I never imagined,” he said. “You make more friends. I have more friends in every department. It's nice to have that feeling of community belonging.”
Kaitlyn Walker, a B.S. in Forensic Studies student, found a tight-knit community at The Bob Parsons Veterans Center where she works as a veteran ambassador.
As a military dependent, she is proud to provide veterans and other military dependents with benefits information and help them feel the same support she’s found in the center.
“Along with getting work experience, you also have a chance to make great friends and network across multiple fields,” Walker said.
Tyana Mackel gets to meet a lot of people, too, in her work at the circulation desk inside Robert L. Bogomolny Library.
Sometimes, she said, she will help a student check out their books in the afternoon and see them in class that evening. Other times, she’ll be in class when someone asks a question about library services. She’s proud she can offer the answer they need.
Mackel, a B.S. in Criminal Justice graduating this spring, has been working in the library for three years and finds joy in every question and every loan. She also appreciates the job’s built-in flexibility.
“I love that I can do my work while I'm here. I don't have to worry about it at home, that helps me a lot,” she said. “I honestly think that getting a job on campus is way better than trying to get a job outside. I don't have to worry about a flexible schedule because the info desk helps me with that already. It was definitely a big break. I would recommend on-campus jobs out of anything, especially if you're a full-time student.”
Tammy Taylor, library’s circulation supervisor, loves having student employees like Mackel join her at the front desk. Their value goes well beyond having another pair of hands.
“Sometimes the best help for a student who visits the library is a student employee who knows exactly what the student is going through,” Taylor said. “Their dedication to their work and their ability to balance academic life is truly impressive. The library truly would not function as well as it does without our student employees.”