Wake Up and Use the Resources!

In this week’s blog post, I wanted to call attention to a resource that we as students fail to use to its fullest extent: the Department of Alumni and Professional Engagement.

Last week, I had the pleasure to sit down and interview the Director for Career and Professional Development of the Dept. of Alumni and Professional Engagement, Wren Frisky. Ms. Fritsky has been with Bloomsburg University for over 5 years and serves as the CoST Liaison and TWC Campus Liaison for BU.

To start, I asked Ms. Fritsky to give me a brief rundown of what the Department of Alumni and Professional Engagement aims to do for students? She explained that the department has two main goals:

1)      To prepare students through networking practice, internships, career experiences, and professional development; they have a special grant, called a Professional Experience Grant (PEG) helps alleviate some of the costs associated with career experience.  

2)      To connect students to alumni so they can have a peek into various industries and make connections that will help them find employment after graduation.

To do this, the department provides workshops on everything from interview preparation to career coaching; from building a network to how to present yourself. The Department of Alumni and Professional Engagement also looks to host events to get alumni back to Bloomsburg to talk about their experience, and possibly connects them to career opportunities. One place you might have encountered the department’s handiwork is the COLA symposium and other BU college conferences. They help recruit and invite alumni to volunteer- as panelists, classroom speakers, experience hosts, and more.

The Department encourages students to get involved with networking platforms like Handshake and LinkedIn, which some of you might be very familiar with. The links below allow you to go directly to the login/account setup page for each of these platforms.  

·       LinkedIn: Log In or Sign Up

·       Students | Handshake (bloomu.joinhandshake.com)

 

Ms. Fritsky recommends that students utilize these resources as much as possible, calling them, “ A student’s best friend!” Social media platforms like these are especially helpful when wanting to build up your network, which the folks at A&PE say is everything when looking for a job or internship. This applies to all students, not just English majors.

Later in the interview, I asked if there were any specific scholarships or job placement for English majors? Her advice to me is to examine and reflect on yourself when you are looking for a job or field of study. Look at what you like or what you do not like. Reflect on your non-negotiables and broaden your search to include jobs with the type of skillset you have, not just what your major says. She also said to look for what makes you happy and to take every opportunity to push yourself to try things outside your comfort zone. Ms. Frtisky’s last point was to understand that college years should be used to try, fail, learn, and try again. In other words, take every opportunity that comes your way, even if you are a little afraid because you never know what can come of it.   

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with, Wren Fritsky or any of the department members at ProfessionalU@bloomu.edu. You can also find them at the Greenly Center 3F downtown.