Career Center to host spring networking events

Taylor Murphy

The Career Center has a busy month ahead with many events that are catered to help juniors and seniors after graduation.

Jill Hermes, the director of Career Center, has put together many events for the month of April. Among these events is the annual networking event, which allows juniors and seniors to meet with professionals from different career fields.

The Spring Networking Event gives students an opportunity to make connections with professionals that could potentially to lead to internships. Students of all majors can attend, and they are encouraged to dress professionally.

This event will be on April 22 in the Coblentz Seminar Room. Students can go online to RSVP by April 16.

A junior at Hood, Jasmine Grant, said that the networking event is very helpful for juniors and seniors. “You’re more worried about getting a job, and those events allow you to meet different people from different fields,” Grant said.

Hermes said that each event hosted by the Career Center draws about 30-80 students. Some of these events are “niche” events, Hermes said, so they draw fewer crowds.

One of these niche events is the Peace Corps Discussion and Reception on April 24. This event will feature Hood Alums that have gone into the Peace Corps.

Speakers include: Pamela Pratt, 2010, and Mary Beth Molin, 2004, who both went to Senegal; Jamie Busey, 2008, who travelled to West Africa; and Nicole Hewitt, 2000, who visited Bolivia.

Hermes said “many students have been successful in [the Peace Corps] and many students are interested in it.”

The Career Center has also put together several small LinkedIn workshops for the end of March and beginning of April. The workshop is in the Career Center and students will be given a tutorial on how to use the site.

Sophomore Carmelita Ugarte said that the Career Center hosts events that “provide very helpful tools and information to students who seek internship opportunities.” She added that programs such as the LinkedIn workshops are “potential résumé boosters” and help students refine their résumés.

Also hosted by the Career Center is the event Conversations with a Hood Alum. On April 7, Ruth Ravitz Smith will come to Hood to talk to students about having a successful career in government affairs.

Smith is the Vice President of global government relations at GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy. She graduated from Hood College in 1983.

When deciding on which events to plan, Hermes said she asks the faculty, students and members of the community for ideas. She said she likes to see what the students are interested in and what the community members need.