Chris Dvorak, senior English secondary education major, Jessica Elsen, English and health major, and Mike Lowe with Topeka Public Schools discuss career opportunities post-college. The career fair was held on Tuesday in Webb Lecture Hall. Julie Thephachan/The Bulletin

For Lauren Peel, senior elementary education major who will graduate this December, the Fall Education Career Fair on Tuesday was just in time for her to find a job.

“I think (the fair) is absolutely fabulous, such a great way to meet people, to network,” Peel said. “It’s just a great way to get your resume out there, and to meet some people who are actually hiring in the district, so this is an awesome opportunity.”

Career services holds the education career fair every semester. This time, they had 43 employers from Kansas, Missouri and other states present, and about 250 students, said June Coleman, director of career services.

“The advantage of the fair is kind of a one-stop shop for students where they can have face-to-face contact with 43 districts all in one place,” Coleman said.

Last year, Emporia Public Schools had around 30 openings out of 440 total in the district, and about 20 of those positions were filled with ESU graduates, said Brian Jordan, assistant superintendent of personnel of Emporia’s Public School System.

And this year, he anticipated the same percentage of those positions to be filled with ESU students.

“We’ve always had very good quality candidates come out of ESU. They’re very well prepared for the challenges they’re going to see in the classrooms,” Jordan said. “Across the state of Kansas, they always bring a level of professionalism with them that we expect as a school district as well.”

Jordan also expected candidates to be willing to grow in their careers.

“We look for somebody that’s on a career path where they have goals and they want to continue their career professionally and grow professionally,” Jordan said. “We’re also looking for candidates that have experience in diverse settings so they are able to relate to our students in the type of instructions that we want to provide in our school districts.”

Peel expected five interview opportunities before she came to the fair, and her interview schedule was filled up.

“I feel very confident,” Peel said. “I feel like all my classes at Emporia, and especially my block classes that are actually for teaching majors have prepared me very well for this day.”

Cartwright Elementary School in Phoenix, the second largest elementary school district in the state of Arizona, expected 150 new teachers and two thirds of them would be hired out of state with $36,000 starting salary.

“This is my first time here in Emporia,” said David Santellanes, teacher recruiter for Cartwright school district. “(Students here) seem to be very sharp and competent, and they are very articulate.”

Tianhai Jiang

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The Teacher Career Fair will be held from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday in the Colonial Ballroom of the Memorial Union. There will be 41 schools and 70 recruiters looking for full-time teachers and some administrative positions.

“It has paid off, and it is a good opportunity for students,” said Charlotte Norman, education interview coordinator and administrative specialist of Career Services.

Norman said anybody can come and it is “all walk-in,” no “sign-up” and no fees. Usually students and alumni attend and sometimes there will be five to 10 students from other schools.

Senior psychology major Seung Gufsch said her husband, who had a hard time looking for a job before, succeeded through the career fair program.

“It’s a good chance to go no matter what kind of backgrounds and (students) can see more schools and have better chances to get hired than throwing resumes by themselves,” Gufsch said.

Emily Wilson, art education graduate student, plans to go to the career fair.

“It is my first time to go to this kind of professional interview, I will practice and try to talk to as many people as I can to learn the interview process,” Wilson said.

The Teacher Career Fair is usually held two times a year, once in November for December graduates and once in March for May graduates. According to Norman, the March career fair is usually twice as big as the one in November, since there are more graduates in the summer.

“(The schools) are looking ahead, as well as having openings also,” Norman said. “They are looking to get a head start on finding the best teachers.”

In order to find some of the best students in their field, most the schools that attend hope to visit with the graduates, looking at their resumes and talking to them.

“Students need to do a really good job of presenting themselves, selling themselves, and like marketing themselves to do the interview,” Norman said. “It is face-to-face contact to the recruiters, and the chance to make good first impression on them. Students get to sit down one-on-one and sell themselves to do the interviews.”

With no previous experience of formal career interviews, Wilson is now working on her resume to make it professional and preparing for the answers that she may be asked during the interview.

Based on an evaluation from students last year, Career Services decided to start the interviews earlier this year to make time for more students to be interviewed. The career fair part and the interview set-up will be shortened.

The agenda of the career fair has been sent to students via BuzzIn account.

Career Services suggests all the students who are graduating to access their hire-a-hornet accounts with their E-numbers so recruiters can go log on and look up students’ credentials (letters of reference, copy of transcript, and resume) without any cost.

Dressing up professionally, bringing plenty hardcopies of resumes and portfolios to hand out to recruiters will also help.

Lauren Lau/The Bulletin

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When education majors graduate from Emporia State, will there be jobs for them?

ESU’s Teacher’s College is among the top four in the nation and currently has 145 students in the student teaching phase. These future educators flocked to the Educators Career Fair sponsored by Career Services yesterday in Webb Lecture Hall in hopes of finding job offers.

But of the 59 districts that attended, only four posted a cumulative total of 13 positions that need to be filled on a board in Webb Lecture Lobby. Exact statistics on job listings were unavailable from June Coleman-Hull, director of career services.

Coleman-Hull said the number of districts represented is down from 73 last spring and 105 in the spring of 2008, likely a repercussion of financial hardships facing schools because of state budget cuts.

“Higher education took a big hit and the public schools were starting to see that big hit last year, but people didn’t anticipate another hit again this year, so the number (of districts looking to hire and attending the career fair) has certainly dropped almost in half,” Coleman-Hull said.

The jobs posted were in the fields of Special Education, Music, Math, English, Elementary Education and Science in the districts of Turner, Gardner, Hugoton and for Sedgwick County Area Educational Services Interlocal Cooperative.

“There are much fewer jobs and districts are very tentative about hiring for jobs right now because they’re not completely clear on what their budget is going to look like,” Coleman-Hull said. “Therefore they’re not willing to extend contracts to teachers because the jobs just either may not be there or they aren’t there, so certainly much fewer jobs for our student candidates.”

Kathryn Taylor, assistant superintendent of Chanute Public Schools in Chanute, said that her district is not currently looking to hire. Instead, she hopes that by attending the fair, her district can become more known to students in the future.

Taylor is an ESU alumna, which is one reason she likes to attend the Educators Career Fair at ESU and is why she looks at ESU graduates before considering others, even though her district is located near Pittsburgh State University.

“I’m an alum, and therefore I know the quality of the students that are produced by Emporia State University going out into education,” Taylor said. “I have hired many ESU graduates and have never been let down by the quality of those that I’ve hired.”

Jestin Blake graduated from ESU in December with a degree in elementary education and has not found a permanent teaching job.

“It’s been difficult,” Blake said. “In December, there was one opening for January, but I just went into subbing. I came here because there are different school districts that I wanted to talk to and I felt that it was important just to show my face and to get my name out there to the schools.”

Cruz Jasso of the Emporia school district encouraged future educators to keep an open mind and take a job where they can find one because things will get better in a couple years and then they can pursue the district of their interest.

Coleman-Hall said education students who are preparing for graduation should use their networks and connections to find jobs and market the advantages of hiring a brand new graduate, like current training in their field. She said there may be more job opportunities in the future.

“(The job market for educators) is going to recover in a couple of years,” Coleman-Hull said. “It will not recover fully is my prediction. Students should look into alternatives to classroom teaching and what else they might want to do that allows them to work with kids but not necessarily in the classroom.”

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This Thursday, Career Services will host the annual ESU Career Fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Webb Lecture Hall.

“I hope students use this to get on the job hunt right now,” said June Coleman-Hull, director of Career Services. “Right now the market is very competitive, and they should try to make those job connections early.

There are 51 employers registered, including many accounting firms and businesses from other areas of interest, according to the university Web site. It is the largest Career Fair of the year, with two other career fairs specifically for teachers being held in November and March, Coleman-Hull said.

“It’s a rough job market for everyone,” said Jason Baker, business graduate student and chair of the Career Fair Planning Committee. “I’ve had great success with the Career Fair since the job I’ll be starting here soon was found through the last career fair.”

Some of the employers scheduled for this year’s career fair include the Emporia Police Department, BNSF Railways, The Buckle, Target and Edward Jones.

“This provides face to face connections between employers and students,” Coleman-Hull said. “It also gives employees the chance to learn about quality programs that we have here on campus.”

Career Services advises students in every level of their education to take advantage of the Career Fair.

“Even sophomores and juniors that are not looking for a job right this second should come out,” Baker said. “They can talk to companies about internships, not just jobs.”

Coleman-Hull advises students participating in the career fair to dress professionally, bring extra resumes, not to travel in groups and to send thank you notes after any interviews.

“I encourage students to research the employers before coming to the fair,” Coleman-Hull said. “The better researched you are, the better any interviews will go.”

There will be some companies interviewing the same day as the Career Fair, and students may sign up for interviews the morning of the fair.

“I hope students will take the time to come out and show employers what ESU has to offer,” Baker said. “We are a very educational institution, but if we don’t show the employers that then they will lose interest and just stop coming.”

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UAC hosts hypnotist

Ron Diamond, a comedic hypnotist, will be performing at 7 p.m. on Monday in Albert Taylor Hall. Diamond is featured every year at the Kansas State Fair said Hilary Moe, variety entertainment chair of Union Activities Council

Diamond will try to hypnotize about 30 volunteer members of the audience. The event is free to anyone who wishes to attend both those who wish to be hypnotized should arrive early.

Bonner Leader Program accepting applications

The Bonner Leader Program is accepting applications. Interviews will be conducted today, tomorrow and next week. Students will perform community service hours for scholarship dollars on a graduated scale. $1,000 can be earned for 300 hours of service in a one year term. $1,250 can be earned for 450 hours of service in a one year term. Emporia’s program is one of two in the state.

Bonner Leaders will be allowed to work at a variety of places including the Humane Society, Youth Friends and After School programs. To get an application, email Jen Groves at jgroves@emporia.edu. Application submission deadline is Monday at 5 p.m.

Career Services hosts Career Fair

Career Services will host the Fall Career Fair from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 24 in Webb Lecture Hall. Over 50 employers will be present to meet with any non education majors.

Students should arrive early dressed in business attire, said June Coleman-Hull, director of career services. Students should also bring extra copies of their resume and research any companies that they want to talk to before attending. There will be opportunities for internships and full time positions.

There will also be prep sessions today and Monday from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Roe Cross Room in Cremer Hall.

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