It’s been two years since Antioch College earned designation as a Federal Work College.

According to faculty member and Dean of Cooperative, International and Community-Based Learning Luisa Bieri Rios, in those two years, the model has helped reshape what campus life looks like for Antioch students.

“We have been really thrilled with the designation and the impact that we’re seeing,” Bieri Rios told the News in March. “A lot of what we’re seeing is just increased engagement from our student body.”

When Antioch’s designation was approved by the U.S. Department of Education in March 2024, it joined nine other Federal Work Colleges and became the first in Ohio. In addition to increased federal support for a student body in which a majority are eligible for financial aid, the designation meant that all students would be required to work in campus jobs during study terms, generally five to 15 hours each week.

Bieri Rios added that, unlike with traditional Federal Work-Study roles, which are typically needs-based, having all students work on campus means a similar experience across the board, no matter a student’s financial background.

“Everybody participates, so it’s a model of equity, and you don’t have this kind of two-tiered system where only the folks who couldn’t afford it are doing the Federal Work-Study jobs,” she said. “Everybody rolls up their sleeves.”

Now, Bieri Rios said, students can be seen working throughout campus, mowing lawns, staffing the library and kitchen, assisting at the Wellness Center, helping at the Foundry Theater box office and supporting programs at the Coretta Scott King Center.

“Our students are engaged and interacting with our campus community, but they’re also interacting with the Yellow Springs community,” she said.

She added that the college has seen some promising data around first-year retention that suggests the Federal Work College model is working for students: after Antioch’s first full year operating under the universal work model, 88% of first-year students returned for their second year, up from 72% previously. She also noted data presented at March’s “State of the College” address, which reported that a three-year average of 94% of Antioch graduates are employed or enrolled in graduate school within six months of finishing their degree.

Bieri Rios said that, from her view, those numbers are a result of students gaining work experience, of course, but also an organic camaraderie that has arisen on campus since the model went into full swing. Students build friendships within their work crews and form mentoring relationships with staff supervisors, which she said builds stronger ties to campus life and better preparation for the world beyond Antioch.

“Part of what we’re seeing from students is they feel a sense of connection to what they’re doing and a sense of belonging here,” Bieri Rios said. “They’re finding it in all different ways, but the work program has been one of the ways they’re finding it.”

Last fall, the college joined the Work Colleges Consortium, a support network that formed in 1995, after federal funding for Work Colleges was established. Joining the consortium opened a pathway for students to engage even further: This March, four Antioch students traveled with Bieri Rios and Antioch College Works Program Manager A Tassy to Washington, D.C., for the Work Colleges Consortium’s annual spring student conference.

Present for the gathering were students from other member institutions, including Berea College, in Kentucky; Warren Wilson College, in North Carolina; and College of the Ozarks, in Missouri.

“It was very exciting,” Bieri Rios said. “Students from the different work colleges around the country interacted and ... talked with legislators about the positive impacts of making a college education affordable and accessible to any student who wants to go to college.”

Conference participants met with congressional and Senate staff members to advocate for continued support for the Federal Work College program, Federal Work-Study and Pell Grants. The Antioch delegation in particular shared personal stories about the impact of Antioch’s model of campus employment paired with the college’s longstanding co-op program.

Bieri Rios said the delegate students also connected with peers from colleges whose missions and politics may differ from Antioch’s, but whose institutions share a similar focus on implementing work as part of curricula.

“We talk sometimes about our ‘Three C’s’ — classroom, co-op and community — as being the pillars of an Antioch education,” she said. “Those really reflect the same work, learning and service values of the Work Colleges Consortium, so it was interesting to see our students interact with students from [other colleges] ... and having these really rich conversations about their lives and their work and being in college together.”

She added: “Our students said afterwards they felt so relieved to be talking to other college students who they felt like understood them and understood kind of where they were coming from and what their experience is like.”

Back in Yellow Springs in mid-March, the students in the delegation gave a presentation on their trip for fellow students at a campus community meeting and encouraged others to apply for next year’s conference. Bieri Rios said she observed a noticeable uptick in self-confidence for the students who were part of the delegation, and added that she believes the Work College model in general offers a similar benefit for all students on campus.

“For the most part, students are finding a sense of collaboration and connection,” she said. “One of the things that we see ... is that sense of self-efficacy and empowerment. Students’ self-confidence — to see it grow — it’s so powerful.”

Bieri Rios noted that the Federal Work College model appears to be integrating well with the college’s long-time co-op model, in which students spend semesters working off-campus. She said the on-campus jobs tee up students to get experience in communication, time management and organization, building a “foundation” so they can be “more effective” when they head off to co-op.

“Whether it be through a Yellow Springs Miller program, working at a local nonprofit, or if they’re doing their co-op in Chicago or New York or California, they’re more prepared — they’ve got the basics down,” she said.