Each Wednesday is another opportunity for students to learn about topics aimed to help them succeed after graduation.
The Career Resource Center is in its third year running Wednesday Workshops and despite the weekly emails from the Career Resource Center Internship Coordinator Beth King, many students do not take advantage of this resource.
“They don’t have to go it alone in their career search,” King said. “The workshop [gives information on] what students need.”
Topics range from internships, social media, grad school prep, networking, resumes and general career help, according to the schedule. Each workshop is instructed by different career counselors and King’s colleagues on campus, a concept in itself she said demonstrates first-hand the importance of networking, one of the workshop topics.
Fourth-year math major Brad Miro attended several of last semester’s workshops and said he found each one helpful. He said the ones he found particularly helpful were about prepping for the career fair and job searches.
“If the topic of an upcoming workshop [is] interesting to someone I would definitely recommend going,” he said.
Wednesday Workshops are held every week at 12:30 p.m. in Humanities 115, except the workshop on April 22, which will be held in the library. King said she chose Wednesday because those tend to be lighter class days for students, although she said she knows there is no perfect time.
“We were trying to find something that was consistent every week that our students could depend upon,” King said.
She said she has tried to include the most relevant career related topics which were chosen based upon advice from her colleges and what the instructors were interested in addressing.
According to King, attendance for these workshops has ranged from a handful of students to 50 and is something recent graduate Matthew Krien, a former peer career assistant at New Paltz, encouraged during his time in Residence Life.
“I used to always recommend my residents to check out the Wednesday Workshops,” he said. “There was always something different going on that if the topic didn’t fit them one week, it would probably fit them the next.”
If the timing of the workshops does not work for students, people from the Career Resource Center are available for drop-in hours Tuesday-Thursday afternoons and Friday mornings, or by appointment at 845-257-3265, according to King. Students can also offer suggestions on workshop ideas, she said.
The next workshop on Feb. 11 will be about co-curricular transcripts, held by Director of Student Activities Michael Patterson. On Feb. 18 there will be a brand new workshop held by King about leadership skills.