Abstract
Although volunteer community engagement has been recognized as promoting positive academic outcomes among college students, such experiences can be impractical for underrepresented students who often need to work. Community-engaged employment offers paid opportunities for students to earn money while participating in meaningful community initiatives. In this study, we explored the impact of community-engaged employment on the academic outcomes of underrepresented students. We created a comparison group using propensity score matching, which reduced section bias and group differences on background characteristics, thus strengthening causal arguments. Results showed that underrepresented students who were employed in a community-engaged work program had significantly higher second-year retention rates, graduation rates, grade point averages, and number of credits completed to similar students not employed in the program. These findings indicate that community-engaged employment can provide positive academic outcomes similar to volunteer community engagement experiences, while also addressing financial barriers that many underrepresented students encounter.