Labor & Learning

Students trade work for tuition at size U.S. colleges.

At 20, Travis Leaming is an old hand at grilling pork chops and whipping up mashed potatoes for a table for two or a banquet of 300. When he graduates next May from College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Mo., he’ll have four years of solid work experience and a degree in hotel and restaurant management—without paying a penny in tuition.

"When I graduate, I won’t have any debt at all," says Leaming, of Berryville, Ark. (pop. 4,433). "Fifteen hours of work a week for a college education? I’ll do that deal any time."

Every biscuit that Leaming bakes in the student-run restaurant helps him earn his tuition at the private Christian college, nicknamed Hard Work U.

Working for an education has been the tradition since the college’s founding in 1906 by the Rev. James Forsythe, who believed that a deserving student should receive a quality college education even if he can’t afford one. Since 1965, the college has offered four-year degrees and none of its 7,000 graduates has paid any tuition.

Hard Work U’s 1,348 students earn their keep and support the college by grinding grain, baking fruitcakes, growing orchids, raising hogs and dairy cattle, and staffing the college’s airport, radio station, print shop, museum and fire department.

"A student has to learn time-management here," says college President Jerry Davis, recalling one student’s apt description of his College of the Ozarks’ experience: "He said it was pretty simple. You go to class, you go to work, you go to chapel—or you go home."

Shea King, 21, an education major from St. James, Mo. (pop. 3,704), chose Hard Work U because she wanted to put herself through school. "I didn’t want to rely on my parents," she says.

Brigette Buffa, 20, an English major from Kansas City, Mo., works in the college’s greenhouses, tending 20 varieties of orchids and making floral arrangements for school functions. "We have supervisors, but the students take care of everything," she says. "I’ve learned how to work with other people as a crew."

Twins Kari and Kristi Lee, 19, from Seymour, Mo. (pop. 1,834), room together and work together in the fruitcake kitchen. The college began baking fruitcakes in the 1930s for gifts to donors. Fruitcakes are sold, along with other student-made products, including apple butter, woven baskets and rugs, and stained-glass lamps.

"This was the only college I considered," says Kari, sorting pecans by size. "I knew I couldn’t go otherwise."

College of the Ozarks always has given preference to low-income students from Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma. Acceptance is highly selective—only one in 10 applicants is chosen—at the college that annually ranks among America’s best liberal arts colleges by U.S. News & World Report.

Students are graded on their work, says Davis, and graduates are in high demand.

"The late Sam Walton told me, ‘We will always hire graduates of your school first because they know how to work.’" Many graduates work in management for Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer headquartered in nearby Bentonville, Ark. (pop. 19,730).

Other work colleges

Labor and learning go hand-in-hand at five other private four-year colleges in the United States. Two Kentucky colleges also are tuition-free: Alice Lloyd College in Pippa Passes (pop. 297) and Berea College in Berea (pop. 9,851). Three colleges provide reduced tuition for mandatory student work: Sterling College in Craftsbury, Vt. (pop. 1,136); Blackburn College in Carlinville, Ill. (pop. 5,685); and Warren Wilson College in Asheville, N.C.

"Work is part of the educational philosophies of these colleges," says Dennis Jacobs, director of the Work Colleges Consortium, established in 1995. "We believe that all work has dignity, and the colleges design the jobs so that learning opportunities are built in."

At Alice Lloyd College, the mission since 1923 has been to provide an education for Appalachian Mountain students. "Alice Lloyd knew the leaders were here," says Trina Ratliff, the college’s assistant work director. "They just needed a place to shine."

Lloyd, a Boston journalist and social reformer, is said to have typed 60,000 fund-raising letters to open the school. All six of the nation’s work colleges still depend on the generosity of donors.

"We’re in a remote area of Kentucky and the majority of our students wouldn’t be able to attend a four-year college," says Ratliff, the third generation of her family to graduate from Alice Lloyd.

The college’s 492 full-time students are required to put in 160 hours of sweat equity each semester for a degree. The work is a crash course in responsibility, says Roy Handshoe, 19, a business major who keeps track of hours worked by his fellow students.

"You have more weight on your shoulders than just getting up and going to classes," he says.

Responsibility learned at college is good preparation for the real world, says Albertina Niilo, 35, a junior nursing student from Namibia who attends Berea College. She leads campus tours of the broom, woodcraft, wrought iron and weaving shops.

Niilo searched the Internet for a college scholarship and found Berea, which has welcomed a diverse student population since its founding by abolitionists in 1855. Seventeen percent of the college’s 1,500 students are minorities and 8 percent are international students.

Crops and crafts

At Sterling College in rural Vermont, all 100 students cut and craft wood and tend an organic vegetable and herb garden in exchange for reduced tuition. The college uses draft horses in farming and its maple sugaring operation.

"I want to farm with horses because it’s really important not to rely on so much petroleum," says Princess MacLean, 22, a sustainable agriculture major. "I’ve learned as much working on the farm as learning in class."

Erik Hansen, the college’s dean of work, says the school is modeled after a New England farm "where everyone pitches in to help."

"We turn out students who care about the environment and each other," he says. Students take a required woodworking course in which they must complete a project that uses at least three kinds of wood joinery. Students have made banjos, jewelry boxes and coffee tables. Each student also makes his own canoe paddle for a required canoeing course.

In addition to working on campus, students at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, N.C., are required to do 100 hours of community-service work during their four years.

"You hope you can do many things well," says Phillip Roop, 22, who graduated last May with a psychology degree and did volunteer work for the American Red Cross. "Someday you’ll have a job, family and other tasks and being here helps you learn time-management."

At Blackburn College, students also learn to manage people—their fellow students—by making hiring, disciplinary and management decisions. In addition, students maintain plumbing, painting, landscaping and all facets of the Illinois campus.

"You learn about consistency and fairness and responsibility," says Travis Neel, 22, a history major and one of the college’s two general managers. "You learn about your character. Will you be able to write up your best friend?"

The character-building lessons and time-management skills that students learn while earning their education are as valuable as being able to graduate with little or no debt.

"They’re not just passing us through college here," says Buffa, who will graduate from Hard Work U in 2007. "We’re building a lifestyle."

Log on to www.workcolleges.org for more information about work colleges.

 

Marti Attoun is frequent contributor to American Profile.

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