By Dr. Elizabeth Clarke and Sierra Boudreaux
The newly established Center for Calling & Career at Louisiana College sponsored a job fair in August for students seeking on-campus employment. This is the first event of its kind at LC and it allowed interested students to apply for any of the 162 part-time jobs on campus.
Two-hundred forty-nine students attended the job fair — submitting resumes and applications and visiting with representatives of the different college departments looking for assistance in a multitude of roles.
“Our goal is to teach our students the process of attending a job fair in an effort to learn how to properly speak to a future employer and to go through the process of submitting a resume and interviewing for a position,” said CCC Executive Director Meredith Rennier.
“Another goal is to keep our students on campus demonstrating how Louisiana College helps make college affordable by offering opportunities for students to earn money while attending school.”
Mallory Joseph, a sophomore communication studies major, applied for several different campus jobs at the fair.
“I think it’s a good idea, because as a freshman, I didn’t know about all these student jobs,” she said.
Victoria Watson, a sophomore journalism major, said her expectation of the fair was to seek out the job opportunities that LC had to offer students.
“I was very anxious about the job fair before I came because I have never filled out a job application or done a resume,” she said.
“Despite that, I was able to successfully fill out the applications because of the help of the faculty of staff. The atmosphere was very welcoming, so I was put at ease.”
Rennier said that’s why events like this, and others planned for this semester are so important for LC students. She has a resume workshop and professional etiquette training sessions in the works.
Each department or office on campus had a table set up advertising the different positions with applications available for interested students.
Juanita Mormon, assistant professor of the MSW program, said her department has five student workers. She said she was encouraged by the number of students who attended and applied for jobs — and by how professional they were.
Angie Bunting, LC’s bursar, said she loves that the College held the fair so all departments got a chance to meet and interview a larger pool of students. Prior to this practice, students had to visit individual departments searching for on-campus employment. This allowed students and college personnel to find the best fit.
The fair was held in the Granberry Conference Center, and 31 departments participated.
Alvaro Tudanca, management and marketing major, of Madrid, Spain; Diego Valenzuela, management and marketing major, of Puente Alto Santiago, Chile; and Alejandro Aranda, exercise science and kinesiology major, of Bogota, Colombia; discuss student job opportunities with Michaela Jordan, director of Recreational Services, at Monday’s on-campus student job fair at Louisiana College.
PHOTO CREDIT: Sierra Boudreaux
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