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.
·
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.
