Mr. Jose Cruz (left) directs (left to right) Omar Martinez ’20, Edward Serrano ’20 and David Solis-Lopez ’18 during work study Feb. 15. Work study allows students to work on campus in order to reduce tuition costs.

By Andrew Howard ’17
THE ROUNDUP

“We don’t worry about money [when admitting students into Brophy] and we would never let someone who is smart enough to be here be excluded based on money,” said Mr. Steve Smith ’96, who is in charge of the school’s Work Study Program.

Each student is given a dollar amount they need to work off, and they sign up for some type of work that benefits Brophy. Work study students are at all home sporting events, and many other major events on campus like Back to School night helping out.

The school’s business office awards financial aid packages based on need.

Mr. Smith said it was also important that students can apply for aid at any time while they attend Brophy, not only going into their freshman year.

Senior Kade Hawkins started doing Work Study his sophomore year and said it has led to him meeting a lot of new people.

“It kinda makes me proud to be working and owning my own education,” he said.

Not only is Mr. Smith in charge of the program today, but when he was a student he was a part of the Work Study program.

“I actually benefitted from this program when I was a student, which is probably why I love it so much and why I’m the coordinator dude of it,” he said.

Hawkins said he has one favorite memory from the Work Study program.

“Over the summer I was doing work study with a bunch of guys over the summer and we were moving boxes out of the basement of Romley,” he said. “Someone was throwing out one of those old Nintendo 64s and so we were talking about and we actually ended up giving it to my little brother, which is pretty cool. Really that whole summer was just an awesome experience working hard with that group of guys.”