Academic and Career Advising put on their first-ever virtual Career Week. This week had many different opportunities for students to help themselves in the next stage of their lives after graduation. Career Week’s purpose is to provide opportunities for students to think about their future, shared Beverly Behrmann, an Academic and Career Advisor.
“We hold this event every semester, but in the fall, we include graduate schools,” said Behrmann.
Jack Hanson, KSC senior and Academic and Career Advising (ACA) Communications Intern, explained that this was an opportunity for students to look further into graduate programs, look for nonprofits or work on professional resumes.
ACA is there to “help student’s academia,” as well as “helping students professionally,” Hanson mentioned. He added that the career week included a nonprofit fair, a graduate school fair, RESUMANIA and an internship fair, just to name a few.
A Zoom link was sent out to all students and was posted onto multiple social media outlets. Last Monday through Wednesday, students were able to follow this link to a directory home page. Career advisors were also available in the check-in room to help students find their wanted programs, explained Kristin Brooks, an Academic and Career Advisor and Internship Coordinator.
Once students identified the program they wished to follow, they would be directed to a counselor to talk one-on-one with them about programs or answer any questions they had.
Behrmann went in-depth and explained each day of Career Week: “On Monday, we had Resumania where students can drop in and have their resumes reviewed by recruiters. Tuesday we have 33 grad schools coming for students interested in graduate school programs (most of the grad schools are in New England). Wednesday is for non-profit organizations. There [were] close to 25 non-profit organizations coming like American Red Cross, NHPR, US Army and Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Vermont.”
Hanson mentioned that the ACA wants “to give this opportunity to every student, regardless of them being a senior or a first-year.” For students reaching graduation or just starting their college careers, ACA is a great resource any KSC student may take advantage of.
As this was the first virtual career week, only about 33 students attended throughout the week. But, Brooks had mentioned that this was a great test run, as this event may be online again in the spring semester.
Louise Ewing, an Academic and Career Advisor, led the nonprofit fair portion of the week. She talked to recruiters (for both non-profit and graduate programs) and graduate schools as they shared that at most other colleges’ numbers are down significantly for these virtual fairs. Understanding this could be overwhelming for students to think about at this time and experience this “dry run.” Ewing mentioned that ACA will be making changes accordingly for this spring.
Ewing wanted to get the word out that you do not have to know what career you would like to go into and it actually makes sense to talk about it sooner than later. It is very easy to make an appointment, as this will get students ready for attending the spring event. The spring event is where employers/recruiters are interested in filling positions with prospecting students.
In the meantime, ACA will “work with students every step of the way, whether it’s figuring out what are the possibilities or how to resource those possibilities, or how to prepare for those opportunities,” said Ewing.
Hanson added that the Academic and Career Advising is always trying to help students develop the “the best possible versions of themselves.” Even outside of these events, students can access plenty of information and resources with the help of Brooks, Ewing and Behrmann. They are amazing resources for students needing any sort of assistance or are looking for a place to get started.
ACA is always available for one-on-one meetings by appointment. As Brooks had shared, they also hold weekly career clinics, normally on Wednesdays. Other upcoming ACA events for students can be found at https://www.keene.edu/news/events/categories/aca/ or https://www.keene.edu/academics/aca/ to request an appointment with an advisor.
Denise Ronan can be contacted at:
dronan@kscequinox.com
