Leah Heagy

At the Career Fair Tuesday in Sneaky Park, vendors handed out information and chatted with students about job opportunities. Among these vendors were Nick Valvez and Chris Anderson of radio station 93.1 JACK-FM, who gave stickers, shirts and hats to students.

Hilda Ann Venegas
Mercedes Bermudez
Staff Writers

The University of La Verne’s Career Fair 2007 “Launch Your Career,” was held Tuesday in Sneaky Park and included 33 employers from a variety of professions, who were ready to answer questions.
As students walked around, the Jack FM radio station could be heard in the background amidst the chatter between students and potential employers.

Employers at the fair included: Enterprise Rent-A-Car, THINK Together, Five Acres, California Highway Patrol, Hertz Corporation, Penske Automotive Group and UPS.

Many students looked for vendors related to their major.

“I came because I wanted to browse around for some opportunities,” Pamela Beas, a senior business administration major said.

Companies such as Olive Crest were looking to hire employees, while others such as the Disney College Program were looking for interns.

Students had the opportunity to obtain information on the various positions available at different organizations.

Five Acres, which is an organization that works with foster youth, was looking for a group home assistant manager and residential treatment counselors.

If a student works at Healthcare Services Group, Inc., then they have “the opportunity to enter a large corporation. We accept people without experience,” said Richard Misquez, a district training manager for Healthcare Services Group.

Potential employers tried to show students how working for one of the companies at the Career Fair could benefit them.

“We give them real-life work experience, future opportunities for growth, and meeting a great group of people to work with,” said Kimberly Hardy, a senior recruiter for THINK Together.

The employers made themselves approachable with booths, fliers and informational packets.

Each student who attended the fair was given a goody bag in which to put all the information they received from employers.

Also included in their bag was a green paper which had the names of various employer and a small Styrofoam rocket which had the theme of this year’s fair on it: “Launch Your Career.”

The green paper was part of a scavenger hunt in which students had to get signatures from the employers listed.

At the end of the Career Fair, the winners were announced and awarded prizes.

In addition to businesses looking for employees, some recruiters were interested in getting students to think about continuing their education beyond undergraduate studies.

Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions was at the Fair to inform students about the changes in standardized tests for various graduate programs.

Wendy Lopez, a sophomore criminology major, spent the majority of her time with the La Verne Police Department.

“I thought it was exciting because it provided me information about becoming a police officer.” Lopez said. “I think it’s great that ULV has the Career Fair because it shows that the school cares about our future.”

“(It) makes my job as a student a little less stressful,” added Nataly Escobar, a freshman international business major.

Overall, the event was a success, said Paula Verdugo, director of career services.

“Student affairs, campus safety, facilities and Sodexho did a wonderful job of helping put this event together,” Verdugo said. “Hopefully (students) learned about jobs that maybe they didn’t know existed or at the very least, were able to talk to employers and find out what employers are looking for,” Verdugo said.

Hilda Ann Venegas can be reached at hvenegas@ulv.edu.
Mercedes Bermudez can be reached at mbermudez@ulv.edu.