Creighton Students Build Software, Get Paid
Students in the new Creighton For Good program earn pay building software for outside organizations funded by a federal grant.
Updated on Nov. 11, 2026 in Financial Aid
Creighton University faculty received a National Science Foundation grant of close to $400,000 to fund Creighton For Good, a program in which students build software applications for organizations and are paid for their work.
Why it matters
For students, the program offers paid, hands-on technical experience, and it shows how a university can use a federal research grant to compensate students directly for their work. Student compensation is the grant's largest budget line item, which means the money goes largely to students rather than to overhead.
The National Science Foundation grant totals close to $400,000, and student compensation is its largest budget line item. The program targets two to four students per semester, with projects expected to run long term as students rotate in and out based on class enrollment or internship status.
The players
Creighton University
A private Jesuit university in Omaha, Nebraska, whose faculty received the grant and which is the first organization to commission technology from Creighton For Good.
National Science Foundation
The federal agency that awarded the grant of close to $400,000 that funds Creighton For Good.
Bike Walk Nebraska
A statewide organization that has commissioned a separate project from the Creighton For Good team.
The details
Organizations bring a list of needs to the Creighton For Good team, which works with them to define those needs as technical requirements. Students then build the software, and the team checks in with the commissioning organization at natural points during development before delivering a finished product. The first project is Bluejay Bites, a food-waste app that manages surplus food from catered campus events, and the team is also working on a project for Bike Walk Nebraska.
Timeline
Torin O'Connor joined the Creighton For Good team in March.
Over the summer, O'Connor continued work on the project with Creighton alumni.
In the fall, O'Connor continued the project with a new student team.
Education Landscape
Federal research grants such as this National Science Foundation award have increasingly been directed toward training students through hands-on work rather than only supporting faculty research. Creighton For Good sits within that pattern by paying students for applied software projects while they earn academic credit toward their degrees.
Students interested in paid, project-based technical work can ask their university's career or engineering office whether similar paid, project-based programs are available. Students should also ask the financial-aid office how earnings from campus employment or paid program work may affect their aid package.
The takeaway
Federal research grants can fund student compensation directly, not only faculty research, which makes paid applied-learning programs worth looking for. Students considering such work should confirm with their school's financial-aid office how any earnings could affect their aid eligibility.
Further reading
For more on how students pay for school, explore our Financial Aid coverage.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Omaha World-Herald.
