Sophomore Swag is a program that is meant for second-years to help them with deciding majors and career paths, as well as internships and opportunities to further enhance their resumes and increase their marketability once they graduate.
Jean Riordan, Director of Career Services and also one of the chair persons of the event, commented on why such an event was created.
“This is a new program that we created with the Advising Department. When students come to the beginning of their freshman year they get orientation, FOCUS, and all sorts of fun stuff. Sometimes when you get to your second year, they kind of leave you alone for a while. This is aimed at getting sophomore students to think now about the things they need to be doing to prepare for their careers. It’s kind of hitting people when the excitement of freshman year has kind of come down, and its time to get moving,” said Riordan.
Students who may not have already decided on their majors will have the opportunity to choose one and even begin thinking about how that major will affect them in the long run.
There will also be a student panel, that will be the main feature of the program. The panel consists of a group of students from across all majors. The students were chosen because they all had very strong pre-professional experiences, internships, part time jobs, leadership experiences, community involvement, and the kinds of things that help to build an impressive resume.
The student panel will mostly consist of juniors and seniors, although there will also be one or two sophomore students.
“We felt like all these students have a lot to share with their peers about the experiences they have had, how they attained them, and just some general advice that they should be thinking about at this point in their academic career,” Riordan said.
“We want it to be fun. Career services is often seen as, ‘Oh resumes, cover letters, all the boring stuff’,’ but we wanted to create something fun and interactive for students. We got students that really are the best communicators of this information because they’ve been there. they’ve had these experiences already, and we really think they can be helpful.” Said Director Riordan.
There will be round tables, 8-10 chairs to a table, where students will be able to get their pizza, sit down, and interact with the panel. This is meant as a student-to-student experience, so that they will be the main feature of the event.
Riordan commented on what would be discussed at the event.
“The main topic will be thinking about majors and internships. Lawrence Prentice from Advising and I will be talking about some of the major related stuff while the students will probably cover more of the internship, pre-professional, part time job experiences.”
Riordan remarked on her hopes for this event towards the SXU community.
“We’re hoping that sophomores will come out – though everyone is welcome – and we really want to reach out and let students know that we haven’t forgotten about them.”
Robert Lachowski
News Editor