Upcoming Career Center events

By Amrit Brown//

If you are worried about life after college, the Career Center is offering programs to help.

This is the first year of a series of events called Countdown to Commencement for seniors. Some of these events like the Grad Fair and the Senior Confidential have already occurred but several events still remain.

Secure the Bag! Senior Finances: Pay Off your Student Loan and Establish a Budget will take place on April 6, How to Rent and Insure your First Apartment will occur April 13, and Social Hour: Burning Questions about Life after College will take place on April 27.

The events were put together by the Career Center, the Office of Financial Aid, and the Office of Alumni as well as the Rev. Beth O’Malley, Lisa Littlefield the dean of Career Development and Experiential Education, and Vice President for Community and Inclusivity Tammi Simpson.

“These are now designed to make sure students have a good launch after graduation and make the most of their experiences in the early days of being a Hood alum,” Littlefield said.

This year, the Career Center will also hold the annual TedX event on campus. It will have a series of speakers approved by TedX that will be featured on the business’s website. The event takes place on April 7 and will feature multiple graduate and undergraduate Hood students.

The event will be returning to Hood in future years and will provide even more students with opportunities to speak.

The Career Center has also recently started a new website as part of its goal to create better networking opportunities for students. Alumnifire is a website that allows students to interact with alumni.

Alumnifire, which currently has 193 members, helps students connect with alumni who can read their resumes, mentor them, provide job shadowing opportunities, and help them break into certain fields.

The Career Center is also working with the new director of Corporate and Government Relations, Helen Propheter, to add new business networking events on campus next year. These events will include opportunities to practice networking in a safe environment.

The Career Center sponsors these events to prepare students to enter the career field they are most interested in. Littlefield encourages students to use internships on a trial basis to determine what they like in the workforce.

“Most internships are paid experiences these days,” Littlefield said. Students can spend time doing internships instead of part time jobs to determine what they like and don’t like about their career interests.

Recent events include the Communication Arts seventh Annual Networking Event which occurred March 22 and the spring Career Internship Fair which occurred March 23. Additionally, Hood hosted the Community Volunteer and Internship Fair before spring break on March 9.

The career center has the goal of helping students no matter their year in school or readiness. “We are here to serve students at every level of their experience at Hood,” Littlefield said.