The profile of students who attend Martin University is anything but traditional. The average age is 38, and more than half are Millennials. Many are juggling low-wage, part-time jobs and parenting responsibilities as heads of household. And it’s not unusual for them to be carrying student debt after transferring from other colleges, according to Ezell Marrs, vice president for enrollment management for the Near Eastside Indianapolis educational institution.

Those unique circumstances led Martin University to introduce a work college model that has been primarily limited to rural and small-town communities until recent years. Under the work college model, students pursue their degree while making a commitment to work and provide service for the university or university partners.

Martin WORKS, the urban work college established with the assistance of a $1 million Lilly Endowment grant, improves students’ odds of better post-graduation outcomes since they will be paired with companies that provide relevant work experience. “They are not paying tuition as part of this program — and they are getting paid a competitive wage with top-tier corporate employers, in some cases, Fortune 500 companies,” Marrs said. “They will engage in learning and work-related experience that will set them up for full-time employment in more profitable careers.”

In some historic work college models, everyone who works at the campus is a student with the exception of faculty, Marrs said. Over the decades, many have evolved to meet new career demands. Warren Wilson College in Asheville, N.C., for example, was founded in 1894 as the Asheville Farm School to give underserved and, in some cases, previously uneducated young people, more solid job prospects through a low-cost education. In 1967, it became a four-year liberal arts college. Today, Warren Wilson College, which has been touted as a “best buy” by Fiske Guide to Colleges, continues its focus on “learning by doing” through a work program and community engagement.

“The work college model has been around for some time, but It’s a fairly new concept for an urban setting,” Marrs said. “Paul Quinn College in Dallas pioneered the urban work college. We are now pioneering an urban work college for post-traditional students.”

Check out our website. We locate the best resources and tools we can find and then add them to our website. More info.

Our sponsor marketplace serves to further connect our readers with our advertisers who are focused on serving nonprofits. To learn about each sponsor's nonprofit services, click on its logo.