COVINGTON, Ga.—Miguel Ventura came into Felicia Shanklin’s Career Services office with his resume and a strong handshake.
The Perimeter College student is studying health sciences professions and hopes to one day become a become a pharmacist. He needed help from Shanklin, a university career and employer relations specialist at Newton Campus, to polish his resume. He also wanted to discuss his career goals.
Shanklin recalls how enthusiastic Ventura was.
“A student like Miguel is pretty rare,” she said. “Most students are shy about asking for help, and they need to learn how to walk up to people and introduce themselves, to build confidence.”
Shanklin is one of four university career and employer relations specialists at Georgia State University’s Perimeter College. Their aim is to help students gain that confidence.
This year, Career Services will offer more relaxed programming and icebreakers, a mentoring initiative, career “carnivals” and panel presentations of local employers in hopes of breaking down “shy” barriers that sometimes prevent students from seeking help with their career goals.
Shanklin said she wants to increase student awareness of the benefits of Georgia State’s University Career Services and “bring more students into our offices.”
“I want them to get into their minds that they have to come here for career development, to find an internship or to polish their resume or work on those interviewing skills,” Shanklin said. “I help them develop their career goals to see what steps they would need to take to accomplish those goals.”
Shanklin also hopes to recruit Newton Campus faculty and staff members this fall as career mentors, to help students build confidence in their chosen discipline, help build social skills and character, increase their industry knowledge and understand what their chosen career might entail, she said. For example, students may not be aware of the range of opportunities available for a health sciences or English major besides the traditional areas of nursing or teaching.
Newton Campus will host the first career “carnival” on Wednesday, Aug. 22.
The campus-hosted events are:
- Newton Campus: 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 22., in the first floor lobby of Building 1-N.
- Decatur Campus: 11 a.m.-2 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 28, in the courtyard between A and C buildings.
- Clarkston Campus, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 29, on the fountain lawn between Buildings A and B, weather permitting. In case of rain, the event will be in the lobby of Building JCLRC (library).
Alpharetta and Dunwoody carnivals will be determined at a later date.
For information about Perimeter College’s career services office or to volunteer as a career mentor to students, go to career.gsu.edu, or contact Shanklin at 678-891-2408.