Utilizing Federal Funds for Experiential Education: The Job Location and Development Program

The way in which the government defines "financial need" does not always account for the individual decisions families make when sending a student to college. Many students who do not qualify for federal financial aid must still pay for part of their educational expenses, and need a part-time job in order to do so. The Job Location and Development (JLD) program was designed to help these students find the employment they need, to pick up where federal work study leaves off. Since 1979, the MU Career Center and the Office of Student Financial Aid at the University of Missouri-Columbia have together operated a JLD program on campus that, since its inception, has helped more than 25,000 students find employment while in school. Those employment opportunities serve to not only assist students in funding their education, but also to provide students the opportunity to learn about themselves—their strengths and weaknesses, their career interests, perhaps what major they ought to choose—as well as valuable skills they can use after graduation.