Upcoming job and internship fair set to inspire students to work
Over a hundred organizations are involved in the upcoming software engineering jobs and internship fair, hosted by The South Dakota Association of College Career Centers (SDACCC) on March 25.
Two fairs, one for everybody and one specific to future teachers, will take place online through The Simplicity site from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Heather Johnson, the assistant director of the USD Academic Career and Planning Center (ACPC) and employer relations chair for the Teacher Career Fair, said regardless of what students are majoring in, there’s going to be something for them.
The teacher-specific fair includes 79 nation-wide school districts, most of whom are looking for speech pathologists, counselors and other faculty positions aside from just K-12 teachers, Johnson said.
“The reason the South Dakota Association of College Career Centers started putting these fairs on is to connect our students in South Dakota with employers in career services. We’re the bridge between our students who are looking for jobs and internships, and employers that are hiring interns for full time positions,” Johnson said.
Johnson said her role was contacting the employers, the school districts and getting them to register and instructing them on how the fairs are going to work.
“As assistant director of the Academic and Career Planning Center at USC, it’s my job to help promote the fairs to our students and get them registered,” Johnson said.
In past years, this event took place in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
“Every year we put on these fairs for students,” Johnson said. “Normally we do it in person in Sioux Falls, but this year with COVID, we had to go virtual.”
Ashlin Schoenfelder, career advisor and employer relations coordinator in the Academic & Career Planning Center at USD and member of the SDACCC organization, said, over 400 students across South Dakota schools are registered to participate in the fairs.
“The goal of this fair is to connect our students to employers and the employers to students, whether it be for an internship, full-time job, just to learn more about their company, or to simply network,” Schoenfelder said
Planning for an event like this takes months to prepare.
“As the employer relations chair, in September, we start sending information to the employers – employers have been registering since November,” Johnson said. “We usually wait until after spring break to start really promoting the events to students. These past couple of weeks we’ve been really ramping up and promoting it more.”
“There is still time to sign-up for the event if you are a student or an employer. Check your USD email or connect with the ACPC to find out how,” Schoenfelder said.
Students can register for the fairs by going to https://sdaccc-csm.symplicity.com/events
