Among the many changes at the University of Hartford for the 2015–16 school year, one of them involves the new location of the Career Services Center in the Gengras Student Union.
Well, at least half of it.
Previously, Career Services was located only on the third floor of GSU in room 309. Part of the offices are still there, but the main hub has moved to the second floor next to the Center for Community Service, replacing the previous tenant, Educational Main Street.
The new location at GSU 207 gives Career Services higher visibility, especially since that hallway is a heavy foot-traffic area for students going to the Gengras Cafe or Suisman Lounge.
“People just walk in and that’s a thing of great beauty,” director of Career Services John Kniering told The Informer. “Suddenly everybody comes in and they say, ‘There’s Career Services here? Wow!’
“We’ve been hidden upstairs for the last three millennia,” he continued. “No one goes upstairs. You go upstairs to see the dean of students if you’re in trouble.”
The functions of Career Services range from planning employer events to brokering internship information, counseling students on potential career paths, delivering in-class workshops and finding out what University of Hartford graduates are really doing in the “real world.”
A majority of their work during the fall semester is working with the freshmen class.
“If a student isn’t convinced that he or she is going to have some path to the future, all these questions pop up. ‘Why persist? Why do this?’ when they could be sitting on the beach and tending the bar,” Kniering said. “It’s a legit question.
“The highest percentage of students most at risk for not persisting are classically freshmen looking at their sophomore year.”
With the higher visibility, they hope that students will reach out to them for assitance.
In the past, Career Services teamed up with the Office of Student Financial Assistance to provide a work-study fair for students looking for jobs.
Due to procedural changes, SFA did not schedule a work fair this year. Instead, most known work-study jobs are now posted on the University’s online Career Bridge employment system.
However, Career Services is still encouraging students to walk in to their new location to get their questions answered in real-time.
A future evening session is also planned to assist students in finding jobs and other forms of student employment.