Are these positions subsidized and paid for through the Chancellor’s Office?
These positions will be paid with your campus’s CalWORKs work study budget, so it’s a way for you to spend down your work study money.The Chancellor’s Office has approved this as an allowable work study expense. (Mia Keeley or Nicole Alexander sent an email confirming this a couple of months ago, which we can send if you need it.)
Who will employ the student?
The student will be an employee of your college, like your other CalWORKs student workers, and their assignment will be completely remote. Because this is work study, the income is not counted against your student’s cash aid.
Do any of our current CalWORKs students qualify, or do they need to be enrolled in a certain number of units?
Any CalWORKs student eligible for work study on your campus is eligible to be a SPARC Student Leader. Please follow the work study policy at your campus.
Your email said, “nominate a SPARC Leader.” Don’t you mean “hire” a SPARC student worker?Yes! This is new for us, too, and we’re still figuring out all the language. Please hire your SPARC student worker and let us know who you’ve hired through the links below.
Does the CalWORKs Association pay a portion of the wages, or would we be paying 100% of the wages under our CWS funding?
All funding comes from your campus and the CalWORKs Association does not pay any of the wages. So, your CW program could pay 100% with CalWORKs funding (because the student is working out of your office), or you could pay 75% and match 25% with Federal financial aid, or the match could come from your college’s 01 funds or from another source.
Is the position remote?
Yes, the position is 100% remote. Way down the line, there may be opportunities for CalWORKs SPARC Leaders to travel to meet with elected officials and systems leaders, but that will be entirely voluntary and very rare.
Would the work study agreement be made with the CalWORKs Association, or are we hiring a student under our own CalWORKs Department with one of us as the supervisor?
You are hiring the student under your own CalWORKs Department, with you (or someone at your college) as the supervisor.
Are we the employers, or are you?
You are the employer.
Is this an on-campus work study job? Yes, it’s on-campus remote. (The student is working in a campus program, even if the work takes place remotely.) Follow your college’s policies for remote student workers.
As for the supervisor piece: how many hours per week are you imagining this may entail on our end? Would we be working with just the student or involved in meetings with CalWORKs Association as well? Wanting to get a sense of the expectations and time needs for the supervisor.
As the point person, your involvement might be around fifteen minutes to a half-hour a week, but it could be more if you were interested in getting more involved. Your student will be assigned to brief you every week on what is happening in SPARC. That could be by phone, in person, on Zoom, or by email. Your student will also have some assignments to carry out each week on your campus, and you might decide to be more or less involved in those assignments. (For instance, your student might ask to meet with your VP of Student Services at some point, and you may want to be involved in that meeting. Or your student may reach out to other CalWORKs students to do some interviews and you may want to assist or participate in that.) You will also sign the student’s timecard and provide any supervision required by your campus.
The email says the kick-off is this Friday, and then down below it says, “view the kickoff,” so is this Friday going to be different than what is viewable below?
The summer session kick-off with students is this Friday, but the link in the email was to the first “kick-off” we held a few months ago to introduce and launch the whole program. Â
When does this position actually begin working 15 hours a week?
Students participating in our summer 2021 session will start work June 18 at 10:00 a.m.