Student workers have always been a traditional and valuable component to the smooth running of many academic health sciences libraries. However, in recent years many libraries have redefined student workers' roles to extend beyond their traditional scope due to a range of factors, such as loss of staff and budget cutbacks. The Bio-Medical Library at the University of Minnesota has been no different. The library staff filled this need via the creative solution of having their student workers expand their traditional roles into positions with more responsibility and far more training than they had typically received and introduced the position of student reference assistant. This article discusses how the employment of student reference assistants at the Bio-Medical Library has provided valuable help at the reference desk and has improved service to library patrons.