Students find career, internship opportunities through expo

To help prepare students for the real world, Minnesota State University, Mankato hosts a Career and Internship Expo each year. This year the expo was hosted in the Centennial Student Union Ballroom, compared to it being held virtually last year. Here, dozens of companies and businesses are invited to represent who they are and extend job opportunities to students who are looking for experience.

Bereket Hile, a sophomore at MNSU, explains what the expo means to him, “The expo is a big conference for colleges of science, engineering, and technology. They [the businesses] want to reach out to people who are looking for a good, encouraging team to be a part of and to help them find their interest.” 

While some students attended the expo to search for jobs, others were there to advertise their own campus organization to students. 

Junior Hailey Schwieger, who represented Construction Management for Women at the expo, said, “We’re a newer group on campus. We just got started and needed that extra push to get our name out.’

Schwieger said she was strongly influenced by her family to enter this career path.

“The reason I wanted to start doing this is because I grew up around construction and my whole family was in it, but there was no pressure to join for me. I was going to go into business until I found this specific major. I love getting my hands dirty and watching a product go from the ground up. With other jobs you only do a part of the project, whereas in construction you can see it from the starting point to where you can drive by your building knowing everything that went into it.”  

Senior Khadijat Jadua was representing Northstar Dental and expressing what opportunities they had for students.

“We have only been here for an hour and we already have a good list of people who want to look into us more. This is definitely a great way for students to share their interest with others and people to find a good club and community to join. I’m a biomedical science major, and I’m hoping to go to medical school.”

The Expo is a big opportunity for students to show off to employers and other organizations what they’ve accomplished in the past few years and help them find their passions. 

Schwieger shared why she was at the event and how she wants to help people do what they love. 

“I think some people see construction as a guy thing but it’s such a passion of mine. I really want to help girls know that they don’t have to live up to stereotypes and that they can be whatever they want to be. You’re never going to please everyone so you might as well do what you love.”

Hile added to this, “A lot of people here are just being introduced to these things. We get a lot of people who find a passion they never knew they had. It’s later on that they actually join the group.”