William Peace University makes sure that all students that walk the campus will be prepared for the work force. They also have a high percentage of students who are able to find a job within months of graduation. The annual Career Connections event hosted by Career Services Oct. 23 offered the opportunity for employers in the community, alumni, and current students to connect and learn.
Shelly Hoover-Plonk, Career Services Director, feels this event gives students a better insight of how it is stepping into the workforce.
“The concept of it is to bring our Alumni members who are currently working in their careers as well as community members together to meet our students… and for the students to hear about the different career opportunities by major,” she said.
Mrs. Hoover-Plonk also sees this event not only as informational, but something that will build relationships.
“It’s an opportunity for these two groups to network and learn more about these careers,” Hoover-Plonk said.
Julie Cline, Assistant Director for Career services, is new to the William Peace family. She hopes that this event gives the students an opportunity to also hear about internship opportunities.
“Not only do I want to help promote the event, I want to give a nice little plug about our internship program to our employers and give our students that are looking for internship opportunities to network with these companies,” Cline said.
The event was broken up into three sections. The first two sections gave students an opportunity to attend a panel with alumni and community employers to hear their career experiences since they have graduated from college. The third section was a networking social that gave everyone involved in the event a chance to meet face-to-face. According to some feedback about the Career Connections event, students have found value in the event. It has helped them clarify what they want to do.
WPU Alum Olivia Gray was one of the panelist for the Communication Department. Gray graduated in 2015 with a degree in graphic design. One tip that she offered was having a broad range of classes to take.
“After Peace I didn’t feel fully prepared to get a job. And I don’t think that’s Peace, I think it is a mixture of not taking more of a variety of classes… I would have loved to take a business class or a gaming class just to get more skill sets, that’s what I wish I would have done,” Gray expressed.
Here are some tips that can help make college easier:
- Take advantage of being on a small campus. This gives a student a chance to have a deeper connection with professors as well as chance to get involved on campus.
- Do as many internships as possible. This may be a huge feat. Doing more than the internship that is required can help gain working experience before graduation. Helps to build up a resume.
- Experience different jobs to weed out something that does not fit with the major that is chosen. Knowing beforehand makes it easier to focus on the bigger picture.