Over 80 non-profit organizations will crowd Cousens gym this Friday as University College of Citizenship and Public Service (UCCPS) will be co-sponsoring a non-profit Career Fair. The UCCPS has been offering new opportunities for students this semester through the career fair, and will provide a new paid internship program this summer geared toward community involvement.
Student desire to become involved in careers in public service and non-profit sectors has increased over the past few years, but students have complained about the difficulties in contacting active members of the field. Both the career fair and the internship program, Active Citizenship Summers, are attempts to remedy the problem and give interested students the chance to experience the field before they graduate.
Idealist.Org, a California-based online non-profit career center, has been working with the UCCPS and other local organizations to organize this fair. The event is one of five that will be held this year, with others taking place in Denver, Austin, Minneapolis, and Philadelphia.
Over 1,000 people are expected to attend the fair, which will boast an informal atmosphere where non-profit recruiters can meet students. Job seekers can distribute resumes and speak with organizational representatives about employment options and internship opportunities.
"The idea of these fairs is to really show people the depth and diversity of the sector and the variety of opportunities that are out there for people who want to get involved. Our organization is really about trying to connect people who want to get involved with people who are involved," said Dan Kessler, the Idealist.Org career fair coordinator. Among the 80 organizations that have registered for the fair are Teach for America, The New England Center for Children, Peace Corps New England Regional, the American Cancer Society, and Elderhostel (Boston).
During the fair, which is scheduled from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. this Friday, additional workshops will feature a variety of nationally recognized speakers in the non-profit sector, such Tufts alumna and New Profit, Inc. founder Vanessa Kirsch. The workshops will range in topics from environmental non-profit organizations and technology careers in the non-profit sector to careers in public interest law.
While Idealist.Org was the first to approach Tufts about hosting the career fair, UCCPS administrators have seen a growing student demand for fairs like this over the past few years.
"The demand for career guidance about specific public service-oriented career options is high and growing," UCCPS Dean Rob Hollister said. "What currently is available and provided by the University is terrific, but as a higher percentage of students Tufts is attracting expect public service work to be a significant part of their Tufts experience, the changing profile of student interests asks for more."
This type of career fair is also part of UCCPS's overall objectives, according to UCCPS student development coordinator Mayuri Guntupalli. "One of [UCCPS's] goals is to educate Tufts students for a lifetime of active citizenship, and a lot of students have indicated to us that they feel like they don't have very many public service opportunities here," she said. "Generally, career fairs on the Tufts campus include for-profit consulting firms. We're trying to make non-profit organizations and other public service organizations available."
While the career fair is geared toward students who will soon enter the job market, Active Citizenship Summers is offering the chance for students to get involved in the public service sector before they graduate. Many students would like to obtain public-service experience in the summer, but this is often difficult for students who need to save money because many of these jobs are unpaid. The UCCPS is hoping to combat this problem by offering the ten-week paid internship program, which gives students the opportunity to earn up to $4,000 while working in the public service sector.
Students will be able to participate in prearranged internships in the Boston area, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Washington DC, or propose their own location. The internships will take place in a variety of organizations from non-profits to governmental organizations, corporations, and other institutions that are working on societal issues.
"The goal of the program is to provide more students with opportunities to do something public service related during the summer, expose students to different fields and sectors, and to get students job skills for once they leave college," Guntupalli said. "It also helps build partnerships with organizations that Tufts works with in the Medford, Somerville, and Chinatown communities."
Students who participate in the program will be asked to attend a workshop when they return to campus in the fall and remain involved in UCCPS activities throughout the year. Students like senior Greg Propper, who has been involved in UCCPS throughout the year, feel that this internship program is fulfilling a great student desire. "I wish it had started four years ago when I was a freshman, because there have been many occasions in the summer and the semester where there were opportunities I wanted to pursue, but I was unable to participate because of financial considerations," he said.
The UCCPS, which has been working on the career fair and internship programs with other organizations on and off campus, like Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) and Career Services, Boston Cares, and Massachusetts Council of Human Service Providers, Inc., hopes that this event becomes the first part of a continued process to increase student opportunities for non-profit careers.
"There continues to be an important need to provide information about non-profit careers and to provide internships in the public arena," Hollister said. "What Tufts is trying to emphasize is that instead of viewing community work as a kind of separate bubble, or as something that people in business and other non-service realms would do after hours, we can find ways to integrate those values and activities into work regardless of what our occupations are."
