Students prep for futures with career fair, wellness workshop

By Austin Ferguson

Rider’s Joseph Vona Academic Annex (Vona Annex) is home to a series of Wellness Workshops, used to discuss and better the health of students on campus.

Sponsored by the Department of Counseling Services, the workshops cover diverse topics ranging from creating strategies for academic success to learning how to respond to acts of assault and abuse.

Stephanie Jacobs of Counseling Services started the program three years ago “to reach out to students about their health in a group setting, without the commitment of a class, where you would be required to show up every week.”

Jacobs originally brought up the idea of holding weekly seminars about  the health of students, and now oversees all of the workshops and speaks at a few of them herself.

Through bulletins and e-mail announcements to inform students about the workshops,  Jacobs has learned that a lot of students who attend the workshops do not find out through advertisements and announcements for the meetings.

“We have found that students don’t read their e-mails,” Jacobs said. “A lot of people who attend the events find out about them through word of mouth.”

Jacobs wanted the workshops to encompass multiple types of health and wellness, which reflects on the diversity of departments in which professors who put on the workshops come from. Workshops are hosted by representatives from Counseling Services, Health Services, the department of Finance and the Academic Success Center. There is even a lesson put on by Cristina D’Averso Collins, who represents the Catholic Campus Ministries. 

Dr. Feng-Yin Liu, professor of economics and host of the “Financial Health for College Students” seminar, said that financial health “is very important for people, because finances can affect you in so many other ways.”

Such ideas were also echoed by Jacobs.

“The workshops are for your holistic health. A workshop could focus on physical, mental, social or financial health any given week,” Jacobs said.

Strive to Thrive wellness seminars take place every Tuesday through Dec. 4, located in room one of the Vona Annex. 

Another opportunity that was available to members of the Rider community was the Career Fair on Sept. 27, where students had the chance to market themselves to potential employers.

The courts of the Student Recreation Center (SRC) were filled with over 130 tables, all with prospective employers of students and alumni of Rider.

Employers actively recruiting at the event included local companies like Hamilton Financial Group and Johnson & Johnson, to larger corporations like Bank of America and BP, an oil industry company. 

Students were dressed to impress for the potential interviews that they could encounter throughout the morning, however jobs and careers weren’t the only opportunities present at the fair. 

“Career Fairs are a great way for employers to identify talent for their organizations,” said Employer Relations and Outcomes coordinator Iram Khan. “It is a convenient way to meet and informally interview students for positions within their organizations.”

Aside from the ability to network with many individuals at the fair, students and alumni were able to interview for internship opportunities. According to the Handshake app, a resource commonly used by Rider students to look for jobs and internships in the area, companies such as New Jersey Manufacturer’s Insurance Group and Walgreens were looking for interns from the Rider Community.

Employers present at the Career Fair came from four different states, with companies coming from as close as Lawrenceville to companies from cities such as New York and Philadelphia.

For those who missed the event, Rider’s department of Career Development and Success are putting on more events that relate to building skills surrounding the job search and interview process.

The “Market Yourself – LinkedIn and Networking” workshop, teaching students how to market themselves for the job searching process, will take place on Oct. 2 at 11:30 a.m. in Sweigart 108.

The college of Liberal Arts and Sciences will be holding workshops throughout the week, ranging from resume drop-in hours to lessons on essential skills such as job resource searching and planning out of state internships.

For more information on the wellness workshops, contact Stephanie Jacobs at 609-896-5157 or sjacobs@rider.edu.

Published in the 10/03/18 edition.