The Honors College Exclusive Job Fair
Photo Credit to Darken Wolf
The Honors College is hosting a whole sleuth of events this semester preparing its students for their upcoming career choices. On the night of September 16th with piles of pizza and dozens of speakers they held a job fair in the Tobin building; where students were able to have conversations with important employers around Wyoming.
In an interview, Peter Parolin, dean of the Honor’s College said, “I think the internship fair that we’ve done tonight is just a great example of the kind of opportunities we have for students in honors and for students all across the University of Wyoming. This university offers you a banquet, and I always want to encourage students to sidle up to the table and partake of all the good things that are available here.”
“The Honors College is a home for academically ambitious and curious students. who also want to make a difference in the world, want to have an impact in their communities and professions,” said Parolin, “We are an interdisciplinary college. Students study in their major, they study with others who are studying the same kinds of things, asking the same kind of questions. In honors, you are in classes with students who come from every different major on campus and they’re going to learn from you and you’re going to learn from them and that’s exciting. We offer big interdisciplinary classes. It might be diplomacy and negotiation or AI Unleashed or neuroscience and law or a cultural history of cancer. Just big topics that allow students to explore from a lot of different points of view. Big questions. We’re also a community on campus. We do a lot of co-curricular activities like the fair that we’re doing tonight, talking with partners across UW and across Laramie about internship”
Though students of all stripes are allowed to apply and eventually get into the Honor’s College; the current extra opportunities are only available for current members of the Honor’s College.
In an interview, Dr. Chris Rothfuss, director of internships said,“For ours, they’re for Honor’s College students. So our program is for our students. The university does have other opportunities for internships in different colleges. The College of Business has internship opportunities. The College of Engineering does. So all of these programs work together to some degree and we have meetings and try to coordinate. But our program has some real benefits.”
The Honor’s College provides meetings and opportunities for their students that could possibly give them an edge in the future job market.
“So a lot of our students come in through the application process to the university,” said Dr. Rothfuss, “So we recruit as students come and join the university. We recruit those that are interested and they can apply through the application process. But it’s not limited to that. We accept transfer students to the university, honors colleges that are interested, that are just passionate about this interdisciplinary education. And those students work one-on-one with our director of student success, Dr. Lee Tang. And Lee works with them to just figure out, all right, well, this is where you’re at in your college experience. This is what we can do to bring you on board into the Honor’s College, and this is what you’ll have to do to complete the honors minor or honors major. So we are always welcoming students that just have a passion for education and for the type of education that we offer.”
The Honor’s College provides resources to help pay students interested in internships that do not offer pay to participants.
“One of the great things about the Honors College is we are able to be all about the students. It’s all about creating enriching opportunities, building deep relationships, helping open doors for students, and encouraging them to walk through,” said Parolin, “And as I said at the beginning of the internship fair tonight, We create all these opportunities, but even though I’m not an economist, I know that sometimes it costs money to say yes to an opportunity, right? Like if you have to work to pay the bills, you may not be able to take an internship if it’s unpaid. So we make our internships paid so students can say ayes. And we do this across our opportunities, right? If we’re going to offer really good things to students, we want to make it easier for them to be able to say yes.”
Students who are interested in learning more about the Honor’s College can contact them at honors@uwyo.edu and at (307) 766-4110.
