Mallory Lewis clocks in, clocks out and clocks back in again. Her summer is a cycle of work, interning with little room for rest, all just to stay afloat.
“I just needed money,” Lewis said.
Lewis, a 21-year-old University of Florida student double-majoring in political science and criminology with a minor in public relations, is going into her senior year working close to 30 hours a week.
This summer, her time is split between three roles: supervising at RecSports, running social media for New Scooters 4 Less and interning unpaid at the Eighth Judicial Circuit Court. The income she earns goes toward essentials like groceries, gas, utilities and car payments.
The heavy summer workload is shared by many low-income students at UF, who take on multiple jobs just to stay afloat while managing their academics. As UF markets itself as a top ten public university, the cost of attending is anything but low.
According to UF’s Office of Student Financial Aid and Scholarships, the cost of attendance for the 2024-25 academic year for in-state undergraduates living off-campus was $23,530.
At UF, about one in five undergraduates receive Pell Grants, a common benchmark for identifying low-income students. About one in three undergraduates in four-year public universities across the state received Pell Grants in the 2022-23 school year, according to data from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
The UF Board of Trustees recently announced it would consider a proposal to raise out-of-state student fees by 10% at a special meeting on July 23. If approved, the increase would take effect in Fall 2025.
While the proposal wouldn’t affect in-state tuition or fees, it can have ripple effects on the campus community, especially for students already struggling to afford the university as is.
“I feel like I don’t ever have money to do fun things for myself unless they’re free,” Lewis said. “It just kind of sucks being a college student, and you can’t afford to do all the things that you see everyone else doing.”
It’s important to find a job that allows her to get the full college experience while enabling her to support herself, she said.
“While I do need money, I would rather have experiences that I only get at this age, like being able to go home and spend a month for Christmas with my family,” Lewis said. “I’m not going to have that once I graduate.”
While some parents help with rent and other expenses, some students work to pay for personal expenses.
Anna Lu, a 21-year-old biology senior, works 20 hours a week at the Reitz Union Arts & Crafts Center over the summer while balancing four classes.
“I spent so long trying to get a job on campus because I was struggling so hard to manage my money without having a job previously,” Lu said.
For Lu, working over the summer has not only been a financial necessity but also a way to structure her days. She knows many students who also work over the summer, which makes her feel less alone in trying to navigate her workload.
The economic disparity between students at UF is hard to ignore, she added.
“Some people can afford one-bedroom, super expensive apartments, while others have to pinch every penny to try to be at UF,” she said.
Lu applied for SNAP benefits to help with groceries but didn’t meet the work-study requirement, which she said reminded her that the support systems meant to help low-income students don’t always reach them.
Zyrashae Smith-Onyewu, an associate professor in UF’s College of Education, said students from low-income backgrounds often have to take campus jobs as part of their financial aid packages, leaving them with less time to engage in social activities and other opportunities.
“When it comes to thriving, you can see it as the aspect of, ‘I want to take advantage of all the opportunities,’ but for some people, thriving can be the same thing as just surviving,” Smith-Onyewu said.
For students who don’t have extra cash, trying to fit in without money to spend on social activities can be mentally taxing, she added.
“The privilege of not thinking about money is something that students from low-income backgrounds can't actually afford,” she said.
Smith-Onyewu never required textbooks for her classes because she understands the financial burden it can put on her students. Taking small steps to alleviate students’ financial burdens can be the difference between buying groceries and going hungry, she said.
Colleges often assume students are only in need during the school year, but housing and food insecurity don’t pause over summer or breaks, she said.
It’s important that universities recognize that students’ needs extend beyond the traditional academic calendar, she said. Without consistent support during summer breaks and holidays, some students risk falling behind academically and mentally.
“I think that for some people, college is a refuge, and so the college needs to make sure that it is constantly trying to be that safe place for students,” she said.
Contact Isis Snow at isnow@alligator.org. Follow her on X @snow_isisUF.
Isis Snow is a junior sports journalism student and a general assignment reporter for The Avenue. She enjoys reading and working out whenever she has the opportunity.
