Simply impressive.

In a recent #WITwants2know question, 54% of our respondents indicated attending the Coop + Career Fair on October 2nd. We knew this would be a little skewed because the majority of our first year students and sophomores don’t usually attend the fall fair. Here are our actual numbers…

873 students attended the fall Coop + Career Fair, which is up from 840 in Fall 2018. This is a lot of students swarming Tansey gym like bees in a hive. And by itself, that total number of 873 is impressive, but even more impressive are the individuals who make up the whole.

As a colleague and I worked the fair handing out evaluations as students left, we both remarked how intimidating this would have been for us when we were in college. Neither of us attended a co-op school, and our career fairs were not nearly as popular – by students or employers. 177 employers were in attendance at this fair….there is certainly the possibility of feeling overwhelmed.

And as always, you all shined.

I saw students who were confident and ready. I saw students who I knew we’re feeling very nervous or anxious, and managed these feelings to do what they had to do. I saw students who knew exactly which company they wanted to talk with and were so focused on success. I saw students who walked the perimeter of the gym first, got the lay of the land, and then went in. I saw determination, apprehension, handshakes and eye contact, and deep breaths when it was all over.

I saw students. I saw professionals. I saw both.

The vision of the Division of Student Affairs is “Every Student Thrives” and we know this means different things for different people. I saw students thriving. And I saw students on their journey to thriving.

Simply impressive.