Career Fair Opens Worlds of Possibility for Students, Alumni

Two-hundred employers – including a number of Fortune 500 companies – were at Penn College for this week's Career Fair, looking across the expanse of  "degrees that work" to fill more than 2,475 jobs and internships. Hundreds of alumni returned with their employers, offering faculty a great opportunity to visit with past students and learn what they are doing in the "real world." Whether first-year enrollees or seniors, 1,425 students (and 33 graduates) networked with potential employers, learned what they look for in hires and explored what internships were available. The main campus Career Fair was held Tuesday in Bardo Gym; major-specific events were held Monday in the Breuder Advanced Technology and Health Sciences Center (for the School of Health Sciences) and Wednesday at the Schneebeli Earth Science Center.

– Photos by Marc T. Kaylor, student photographer;
Tom Wilson, writer/editor-PCToday;
Jennifer A. Cline, writer/editor-One College Avenue;
and Erin S. Shultz, coordinator of career development

Matthew P. Zelinsky Jr. (far left), a 2009 diesel technology alumnus employed by Motor Truck-Thermo King, traveled with an attraction too large to fit inside.

Ransome CAT recruiter Donna Evans looks over a student's resume.

Brubacher Excavating Inc. brought along heavy construction equipment technology alums Charles K. Rossiter (2012), back for his first postgraduate Career Fair, and Bradley J. Cober Jr., from the Class of 2002.

A student applies for a job with the Pennsylvania Landscape & Nursery Association.

Returning to his alma mater, Wesley J. Fouse (center) – an ornamental horticulture alumnus – staffs a booth for the Maryland--based Ruppert Landscape. The 2009 graduate talks with co-worker Jack Hendrickson and Justin Shelinski, laboratory assistant for horticulture.

The related Centre Hall businesses of Scott's Landscaping Inc. and Wheatfield Nursery brought an all-star alumni team to the ESC Career Fair. From left are Jeremy L. Thorne, Melissa D. (Berrier) Cramer, Jackson J. Albert and Frederick B. Smithmyer. Thorne and Albert are 2013 graduates in ornamental horticulture; Cramer (2008) and Smithmyer (2002) hold degrees in landscape/nursery technology.

Members of the Service and Operation of Heavy Equipment student organization (advised by Ryan W. Peck, instructor of diesel equipment technology) greeted employers and carried their boxes to the ESC tables.

Drew Brungard, HR recruiter for Mount Nittany Medical Center, discusses job openings with a student.

Steven D. Robinette, a nursing student from Selinsgrove, talks with Diane Craven, of Evangelical Community Hospital.

... bringing along hard-hat "stress balls" to relieve the career-fair anxiety for potential employees.

The Wildcat's first rule of job-hunting success: Exude confidence when working the room.

Graduates tower over the college's nonetheless-formidable mascot. Joining the Wildcat are Maurice L. Freeman (left), who earned two HVAC-related degrees in 2002 and 2003, and Kevin L. Imes, a 2007 construction management alumnus. Freeman was here with B.C. Freeman Mechanical and Electrical Inc., State College; Imes is employed by Wohlsen Construction in Lancaster.

Representing Lutron Electronics, Cooperburg, are (from left) electronics alumni John C. Browne Jr. , 2005; Brian M. Warabak, 2012; and Phillip A. Dickey, 2006.

Justin J. Kovaleski, a 2009 graduate in construction management, returned with co-worker Sarah Centini to talk with students about opportunities at Eastern PCM ...

Joseph M. Harner, a May graduate in electronics and computer engineering technology, staffs the Keystone Powdered Metal Co. table with Kim Bosnik.

Kyle Kishbaugh, a 2009 culinary arts and systems grad, greets students at the Wegmans Food Markets display.

Wearing the blue ribbon that denoted alumni at the Career Fair, 2013 construction management graduate Michael R. Caulfield shakes hands with a visitor to the Lobar Associates Inc. booth.

Students check in at Bardo Gym before entering the vendor area.

Erie Insurance's Corey A. Shank (left) and Cole S. Myers – both 2011 construction management alumni – greet visitors to their booth, including Marc C. Bridgens, dean of construction and design technologies (in right foreground).