{"id":71287,"date":"2016-08-11T06:33:27","date_gmt":"2016-08-11T11:33:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/?p=71287"},"modified":"2016-08-11T06:33:27","modified_gmt":"2016-08-11T11:33:27","slug":"okra-works-program-seeking-participants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/2016\/08\/okra-works-program-seeking-participants\/","title":{"rendered":"Okra Works program seeking participants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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Most college students are looking for ways to help pay for college. Plenty of businesses need part-time help from able-bodied, college-aged people. That\u2019s where the Okra Works program at Delta State is trying to bridge the gap between the two.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Davlon Miller, director of Career Services at Delta State, has created a program that will connect students who need help to pay for school and businesses who need workers \u2014 the Okra Works Program. Currently, the program is in its pilot stage, and Miller is looking for both students and businesses to match up together.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a program that allows students to work in a part-time situation and allows them to focus on their studies on campus,\u201d Miller said. \u201cWe mimic it after the amount of tuition needed for a student.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The student would essentially work for a company and the money earned would go directly to pay for their college.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe balance it out and allow them to work for that employer for that amount of money,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we know that it won\u2019t always work out evenly so there is an option for the employer to give the student a scholarship to make up the difference.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

If tuition is $3,200 and if a student works 10 hours a week over a four-month period, the student would make about $1,700 or more.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf the student is in good standing and everything has gone well and according to plan, the employer will pay a \u2018merit scholarship\u2019 as well. It\u2019s a good incentive for the student to do well,\u201d he said. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While it is in the pilot stage, Miller is searching for businesses to take part.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been working on it for a while now and I\u2019m looking to get it off the ground,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can try our best to match up students with a business related to their major, but we would place students in businesses that have a need.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Students can sign up on the career services web page and businesses need to contact Miller directly via email at careerservices@deltastate.edu<\/span><\/a> or call him at (662) 846-4646 to take part in the program. Miller is actively searching and seeking both qualified students and businesses. The program will have students ready for businesses to hire.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe do some screening up front when students apply to see what their need is and their skills are. Businesses don\u2019t normally have time to pre-screen as we do,\u201d Miller said. \u201cWe can give them a cross section of students that have applied.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Okra Works \u2014 a program that will benefit both students and businesses.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most college students are looking for ways to help pay for college. Plenty of businesses need part-time help from able-bodied, college-aged people. That\u2019s where the Okra Works program at Delta…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":71291,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1517],"tags":[1597,136,1596,1598],"class_list":["post-71287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-career-services","tag-career","tag-career-services","tag-jobs","tag-okra-works"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71287"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71290,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71287\/revisions\/71290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}