Getting paid to get ahead: A new program helps students gain career experience and earn money for college

Getting paid to get ahead: A new program helps students gain career experience and earn money for college

By Apollonia Morrill, UC Newsroom | December 12, 2023

With precious little spare time outside her schoolwork, Victoria Morales Vargas was faced with a financial dilemma as she rounded the bend to her junior year at UC San Diego. She could continue volunteering in a prestigious campus research lab or switch to a part-time job that would help pay for her living expenses and reduce the size of her college loans.

On the cusp of giving up her hard-earned research role, Vargas Morales connected with LAEP, a new program aimed at helping students in just her predicament.

Funded by the California Student Aid Commission, LAEP (the Learning-Aligned Employment Program) offers paid, career-building jobs for undergrads with financial need. The program is rolling out with research jobs at all nine undergraduate campuses and will expand to off-campus employment opportunities in future years.

Designed as an alternative to traditional work-study hours, LAEP helps low-income students connect with research jobs that advance their major or career interests. The jobs provide a professional springboard — helping students hone their skills, train with the latest technology, learn from world-renowned faculty and network in their chosen field.

Read on to hear Morales Vargas’ story and meet other undergrads making the most of LAEP.

Student eligibility

LAEP might be for you if you meet the following criteria:

California resident
Enrolled at UC least half time
In good academic standing and meeting progress requirements
Have demonstrated financial need
Eligible to work in the U.S.

Priority goes to students from underrepresented groups and those majoring in STEM disciplines. Visit the campus LAEP websites below for more details.

As a kid growing up in Los Angeles, science was one of summer’s great delights for Sugey Garcia Galvan. The STEM programs in her schools were thin, but Garcia Galvan’s mom, an immigrant from Guatemala, made sure that summer camps at the California Science Center were always part of the picture.

One of those camps was all about marine biology, and it planted a seed of inspiration. Without strong educational resources around STEM in middle and high school, however, Garcia Galvan figured her dream career as a marine science researcher was out of reach. But with the help of a program at UCLA that helps STEM students from underrepresented backgrounds get a foothold in the field, that all changed.

Through that program, Garcia Galvan got her first opportunity to participate in hands-on scientific research — and in marine biology, no less. She landed a role in the lab of Dr. Paul Barber, an evolutionary and conservation geneticist. His lab uses cutting-edge genomic tools to address ecological questions in marine environments, and Garcia Galvan soon found herself immersed in a project on biodiversity in seagrass beds in the Port of Los Angeles.

In the first year, Garcia Galvan reviewed studies in the field and trained on next-generation environmental genetic sequencing techniques. Her funding was running down when the graduate student overseeing Garcia Galvan’s project unexpectedly left the lab. Barber was able to extend her paid position through LAEP, allowing Garcia Galvan not only to continue the work, but also to expand her responsibilities significantly, carrying out DNA testing, analyzing data and even authoring the research report herself.

“LAEP has allowed me to continue working in the lab without the pressure of finding funding or a job outside of research to pay for school,” says Garcia Galvan. “It’s even giving me the opportunity to publish a paper, which is so surreal and exciting. It’s not something a lot of undergrads get to do.” The experience is also positioning her for graduate school and a career in her chosen field, ecology and conservation.

Read the full article on the University of California Newsroom.