William Peace University’s annual career event, Career Connections, will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 22nd at 6 p.m.
“Career Connections is a great project that Career Services has been doing for many years where we invite alumni and community guests to talk to students about their career stories,” said Barbra Efird, Director of Career Services at WPU. “They share information like how they got started, advice on whether you need further education, how you can get a job like theirs, what kind of experience you need, and what characteristics a person should have to go into this type of career.
From 6 to 7 p.m., career panels led by Peace alumni and community quests will take place in various Flowe classrooms. These panels cover many different industries that relate to WPU’s majors, such as business and marketing, communication and public relations, psychology and counseling, science and medicine, law and criminal justice, education, and theatre and creative arts.
“I wish they had a humanities panel for anthropology, language, religion, etc.” said Tarecka Payne, WPU senior and anthropology major. “It’s cool seeing the other majors but I think it would be cooler to see how people with my major have applied our degree to different areas of work.”
At the panels, students can ask questions and gain information about potential careers and internship opportunities. After the career panels, students can attend a graduate school panel and a networking reception.
“I love the grad school panel because it’s a great opportunity to get a better idea of what I need to do to get into grad school,” said Payne. “They even talk about the GRE.”
Career Connections is beneficial to all students, whether they’re exploring different areas of study or looking to learn about opportunities in their major.
“Part of figuring out what you want to do is to get information,” said Efird. “You can get information from a book, a faculty member, adviser, or the internet but another good source of correct and up-to-date information is from people.”
Career Connections is unique because the speakers, whether they be Peace alumni or community guests, come back because they want to tell college students about their experiences. They want to tell students how to get started in their field.
“Our alumni want to come and tell students that I sat in these classrooms, and I had these professors, and I had this struggle, or this opportunity and I want to tell you about it,” said Efird. “It’s exciting to have our alumni back.”