Prairie View A&M University students who had internships last summer were honored at the I.C. Gordon Recognition/Scholarship Banquet held Monday in the MSC Ballroom.
Student Government Association President Oludayo Olusanya was the master of ceremonies while the Rev. Charles Lewter delivered the invocation and Lee Turner provided the entertainment. Laurence Stuart, CEO and founder of College to Career Seminars, was the keynote speaker.
The event was organized by the staff of the Career and Outreach Services department. This office strives to ensure that Prairie View students who are juniors, and seniors will leave here with full time jobs after graduation. “We want students to understand that this is a golden opportunity for them. We have brought over 25 different companies here to allow them to network and get their names and faces across,” said Herbert Thomas, placement coordinator.
Companies that were in attendance included Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Exxon-Mobil Corporation, and Duke Energy, to name a few. Approximately 300 students obtained internships last summer and many of them gained extremely rewarding pratical experience.
Sophomore architecture major Jermonte Henderson said, “PV produces the product but if we don’t ask for it then we have failed as students.” Exxon-Mobil donated $10,000 to Career Services as a token of appreciation. The banquet ended with internship and co-op reflections by Franchelle Craft, senior civil engineering major, and Quincy Arnold, junior management major.
On Wednesday and Thursday Career Services will host the 35th Annual Fall Career Fair. All activities will be held in the MSC on the 2nd floor in the ballroom from 8:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. More than 125 companies will be available to talk with and interview students.
Thomas encouraged all students to come and take advantage of this opportunity and said, “I advise students to take their careers seriously and start planning today for tomorrow.” Senior chemical engineering major Terry LaFleur said, “The world is truly ours for the taking as long as we reach for our stars.”
The office of Career Services is located in Evans Hall in room 217 and its office hours are 8-5 p.m.