Chapter 11: Student Employees: The Fine Line Between Career Readiness and Leadership Learning

In 2019, total U.S. college student debt was an estimated $1.5 trillion (Issa, 2019). As the average cost of education has risen steadily every 5 years from 1980, it is no wonder “student employment is no longer an isolated phenomenon; it is an educational fact of life” (Riggert et al., 2006, p.64). With seemingly ubiquitous debt forcing many students to work while attending college (Planty et al., 2008), and the majority finding jobs off campus (King, 2006), students are often unable to access traditional leadership learning opportunities (Salisbury et al., 2012). If a full-time enrolled student must work to support their education, the hours they can commit to leadership learning through extracurricular activities, including student organizations, student government, or leadership courses can be minimal or nonexistent. Simultaneously, those seeking to employ students after they graduate are spending billions of dollars annually to train employees on leadership (Smedick & Rice, 2018). Therefore, it is important for university communities, and in the private sector’s best interest, to support student leadership development in college by interrupting systems where employment and development are mutually exclusive.