University officials cut the ribbon and opened a new student career center Tuesday on the St. Paul campus.
The St. Paul Career Center is the second such center at the University, with the first being on the East Bank. By offering more career resources, officials said, they are hoping more University students will use it to find their first jobs after college.
“Students who come to the University expect that a career office will be there,” said Heidi Perman, a career professional at the center.
Besides offering text resources on careers and job paths, the center will help students with graduate schools, job recruiters, career-development classes, and resume and cover-letter critiques.
The center also offers an online job-posting site for students in the five colleges on the St. Paul campus.
“By pooling resources and having a larger staff, we can do a lot more with the same amount of resources,” Perman said.
Colleges on the St. Paul campus and the Office of the Provost contributed money to the center. The colleges contributed to the project based on their student-body sizes, said Sara Nagel Newberg, the center’s director.
“We were just going to charge students in the three participating colleges a $20 fee,” Newberg said. “But we were happy not to have to charge the students.”
The partnering colleges are the College of Human Ecology, the College of Natural Resources and the College of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences.
Perman said any University student can use the resource, but one-on-one help with an adviser will be reserved for students from the three partner colleges.
More than 500 students visited the center during the opening day to take tours and explore the resources, Newberg said.
“We’re hearing great things from students through comments and e-mails already,” Newberg said.
The St. Paul Career Center will also be working with the College of Liberal Arts Career Center on the Minneapolis campus through the University’s Career Development Network, which helps students find jobs online.
The center is having a contest for several prizes for students who visit the center through today.
