Career Fair Connects 2,000 Students and 60 Companies
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Jordan Fouts-
The GPS 2 Success career fair at Grace College was attended by more than 2,000 high school juniors and seniors before being opened to the public later in the day. About 50 companies were represented on the floor, in fields ranging from manufacturing and healthcare to finance, agriculture and retail, as well as several colleges, universities and government entities including the Army National Guard and Warsaw Police Department.
The fair was the result of a white paper project proposed by the team of Tom Till, Ivy Tech Community College; Nicole Sherrill, Zimmer; Jennifer Stouder, Depuy; Cheryl Shepherd, Bowen Center; and Kristin Whitacre, Sym Financial.
Till said the aim of the event was to build on a job fair for students the Kosciusko Chamber put on last year, by reaching out to more schools and getting people from diverse backgrounds involved in planning.
“The chamber put on an event a year ago for our high school students, but it wasn’t encompassing enough, wasn’t big enough,” Till said.
In planning the event, the group gathered input from the chamber, WorkOne, the City of Warsaw and the Kosciusko Economic Development Corp. They also reached out to more than 100 potential exhibitors.
The Chamber Education Workforce Committee, which includes representatives from Kosciusko and Whitko county high schools, told planners what they thought was important for the event, such as engaging students with technology. So the team used an app called Guidebook to give students a list of exhibitors with links to their websites and map locations so they could do their research ahead of time, said Stouder, as well as give tips them on what to prepare for and how to talk to potential employers.
The app also lets the team gather feedback from attendees and exhibitors on what to improve for next year, said Till, noting some students asked for specific vendors or for certain fields like agriculture to be more represented.
He added that timing was a challenge for the event’s first year, with some schools having spring break around this time. They also had to compete with a job fair in Fort Wayne the same day.
They might also try to attract more non-students next year, he said, especially from out of the county. Older adults considering a career change could benefit from talking to many of the exhibitors, he said, pointing out the orthopedic suppliers represented as a possible stepping stone to a job at one of the major manufacturers.
“There’s a lot of diversity,” Till remarked while walking the floor. “A lot of businesses here you could start a career at.”[[In-content Ad]]
The GPS 2 Success career fair at Grace College was attended by more than 2,000 high school juniors and seniors before being opened to the public later in the day. About 50 companies were represented on the floor, in fields ranging from manufacturing and healthcare to finance, agriculture and retail, as well as several colleges, universities and government entities including the Army National Guard and Warsaw Police Department.
The fair was the result of a white paper project proposed by the team of Tom Till, Ivy Tech Community College; Nicole Sherrill, Zimmer; Jennifer Stouder, Depuy; Cheryl Shepherd, Bowen Center; and Kristin Whitacre, Sym Financial.
Till said the aim of the event was to build on a job fair for students the Kosciusko Chamber put on last year, by reaching out to more schools and getting people from diverse backgrounds involved in planning.
“The chamber put on an event a year ago for our high school students, but it wasn’t encompassing enough, wasn’t big enough,” Till said.
In planning the event, the group gathered input from the chamber, WorkOne, the City of Warsaw and the Kosciusko Economic Development Corp. They also reached out to more than 100 potential exhibitors.
The Chamber Education Workforce Committee, which includes representatives from Kosciusko and Whitko county high schools, told planners what they thought was important for the event, such as engaging students with technology. So the team used an app called Guidebook to give students a list of exhibitors with links to their websites and map locations so they could do their research ahead of time, said Stouder, as well as give tips them on what to prepare for and how to talk to potential employers.
The app also lets the team gather feedback from attendees and exhibitors on what to improve for next year, said Till, noting some students asked for specific vendors or for certain fields like agriculture to be more represented.
He added that timing was a challenge for the event’s first year, with some schools having spring break around this time. They also had to compete with a job fair in Fort Wayne the same day.
They might also try to attract more non-students next year, he said, especially from out of the county. Older adults considering a career change could benefit from talking to many of the exhibitors, he said, pointing out the orthopedic suppliers represented as a possible stepping stone to a job at one of the major manufacturers.
“There’s a lot of diversity,” Till remarked while walking the floor. “A lot of businesses here you could start a career at.”[[In-content Ad]]
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