Florida A&M University School of Graduate Studies, Research & Continuing Education Minority Biomedical Research Support Program along with Florida Georgia Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation in STEM presented the Graduate Feeder & Research Forum on Tuesday. This year’s theme was “Making Research Work for You.” The forum was help to prepare students for graduate school.
Tiffany Nelly, 20, a junior pre-law student from Orlando said it is important to attend events that expose students to useful information about graduate school.
“This is important [because] we as students need to be exposed to the selection of schools and see what they have to offer us,” Nelly said.
Moreover, graduate schools from all over the nation were in attendance such as Pennsylvania State, Howard University and University of Florida’s College of Medicine, just to name a few.
Tierra Bills, 21, a senior civil engineering student from Detroit said it is imperative that students take advantage of the opportunity that is presented to them and get ahead start of the path they may chose to take in their graduate career.
“So far the turn out seems okay, but this is a good opportunity for active students to get information on cost, tuition and internship,” Bills said. “It took my senior year to come out here to see different schools. This is a viable resource and [I] wish more people would take advantage of this opportunity.”
Most undergraduate students agreed that the recruitment fair was a great way to see what the recruiters were looking for in prospective students. The fair was also a good way to get information on particular schools.
Ramona Madhosingh, a graduate recruiter from FSU, said that most recruiters like to see students showing a genuine interest in their area of study and being persistent.
“Students need to be proactive,” said Madhosingh, who is also a graduate urban planning student, from Trinidad. “When I was an undergraduate student at FAMU I knew where I wanted to go and I showed interest. Students need to schedule interviews with professors and be on top them. That will let them know you have a keen interest.”
Most FAMU students took advantage of the opportunity that was set before them, and a lot of the undergraduates had optimistic views of future graduate fairs that may come to the university.
Nancy Metayer, 20, a sophomore environmental science student from Fort Lauderdale, stressed how essential it is for students to come out to informative events like the Graduate & Professional Recruitment Fair.
“People come out here to spend time and the recruiters have something important to say to the students,” said Metayer. “I came here to weigh my options for graduate school, and to see what resources are available to me.”
While others were optimistic, some felt that the turn out should have been greater because of the wealth of information that was available at the fair.
“I expected more people to attend, and I hope more people attend,” said Kenyetta Neale, 20, a junior history education student from the island of Saint Maarten. “The opportunity to see what grad school has to offer such as information on the school, recruitment, assistantship.”