Minority students attend career fair

Nearly 860 Philadelphia area students and graduates attended the Graduate Study and Career Fair for minority students held at the Civic Center Friday. The fair, which was sponsored by the Black Issues in Higher Education magazine, featured 60 exhibits from businesses and graduate schools from across the country. The graduate schools representatives at the fair said they hope to diversify their enrollment. Business representatives said they plan to offer new opportunities to minority students. "There has been a dramatic drop-off in the participatory rates[of minorities] in graduate study," said Frank Burtnett, a consultant and planner of the fair. The fair was designed to aid these groups in obtaining information about graduate schools and make valuable contacts in the job market, Burtnett said. At the fair, exhibitors got a chance to meet a large number of minority students at one time rather than visiting many different universities on recruiting trips. "One day at a job fair is equivalent to months of other methods of recruiting," said Nancy J. Harvey, human resources associate of the Besselaar Corporation. Fair-goers were able to get information about graduate schools and pick up registration forms for graduate school standardized examinations. Those attending also met and presented resumes to employers and attended seminars on subjects such as good interviewing technique. One school, Thunderbird University, an international management MBA program in Phoenix, offered minority students waivers for their program's application fee at the fair. In order to provide the most opportunities for students, Burtnett said he tried to intersperse graduate school booths with the employer exhibits as much as possible. "We want to create exposure and interfaces for the students," he said. Most students said the fair gave them the attention that they miss at mainstream job and graduate school fairs. "It is easier to have a conversation here because there are less people," said Kareema Levetter a Lafayette University graduate. "I don't feel rushed?I can have a 15 minute conversation with an employer [at this fair]." One of the only criticisms of the fair was the absence of a few scheduled employers, such as the Philadelphia School District.

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