Florida A&M University offers many opportunities for success through multiple platforms. While on campus students have options to join fraternities and sororities, take part in clubs and organizations, or become a member of the Student Government Association and make change. These extracurricular activities are open to everyone, yet when it comes to building a future outside of FAMU the options are less abundant.
Every semester FAMU holds a career expo to further its students by bringing in companies that offer internships, externships and even jobs. But jobs for who?
Students on campus have spoken out about the career expo stating that it should not be projected for all majors when it caters primarily toward business majors.
Simone Steve, for example, an upcoming 2024 nursing major, shared her thoughts on what it was like to attend the spring 2023 career expo.
“You know it was fun going out there dressing all professional and getting to meet with all these companies, but seriously what am I a nursing major doing out here at a career expo,” Steve said. “It was nice and all it just wasn’t for me.”
Steve’s comments raise a question: Why broadcast this school event as if it was inclusive when really for some it would only be a waste of time?
Chaz Clarke, an upcoming 2024 business major, received multiple internship opportunities at the 2023 spring career expo while Steve got none.
“It was actually really beneficial to see what it’s like doing an interview in the real world,” Clarke said. “I really do appreciate FAMU for setting that up, because if I didn’t already have an internship lined up, I would’ve had one by the end of the day, and I definitely made a lot of connections and realized there are multiple ways to use my degree with multiple companies,” Clarke said.
So if the business major says that he would have obtained an internship within a day while the nursing major said it was a waste of time, what does that mean? How are we expecting an art major to walk into the Lawson Center and see all these Fortune 500 companies and expect to walk out with anything but, “I’m sorry but we don’t have career opportunities at the moment for your major.”
The claim is not that the career expo is not beneficial. Rather, the career expo is not being targeted to the right audience. In attempts to make the event inclusive, it has sent out false expectations to students who are not geared to work in business settings.
To remedy this FAMU’s Career and Development Center should collectively come together and instead of having a mass expo, create alternatives like one expo for each school.
To be set up for success, students from all majors need a platform to be able to collaborate and connect for their future betterment in the workplace.