On the afternoon of Jan. 29 Mr. George’s Green was not filled with its usual sunbathers and Frisbee throwers, but instead with booths surrounded by people in     business attire.

This might have been a strange sight to a pass er-by as Florida Southern College hosted its first ever Reverse Career Expo. Florida Southern is known for its semesterly career expos, but it has never before hosted an event where student organizations put on the event themselves.

The Director of Career Development, Xuchitl Coso, explained the idea of a career expo by saying,

“In a regular career expo the organizations set-up booths and try to get students to come up to their booth and talk to them. The recruiters talk about their company and try to see if the student is a good fit or not”

Coso reached out to organizations and was able to come up with 15 organizations that decided to take part in the expo.

“In a ‘reverse’ career expo, the students are the ones setting up the booth and ‘selling’ their organization and the skills gained through their involvement,” Coso said.

Alpha Chi Omega, Beta Beta Beta National Biology Honors Society, Cantilevers, Dance Marathon, Elite board of Students, Enactus, Gamma Phi Beta, Kappa Delta, Math Club, Panhellenic Council, Pi Kappa Phi, Rotaract, Sigma Chi, Theta Chi, Up ‘Til Dawn and Zeta Tau Alpha all participated in the event.

Coso’s goal for these 15 organizations was for them to learn valuable skills that would help the organizations to thrive on campus.

“For me it is all about making connections and learning how to ‘sell’ your skills,” Coso said. “Students will learn how to share what they do as part of their organization with individuals from the community and exchange information about themselves and their organizations with the representatives.”

From each of these organizations four to six representatives were selected in order to represent the group as a whole. The representatives are either leaders or active members within the organization.

All along Mr. George’s Green tables were set up were each organization-displayed pride in their organizations through colorful poster boards and informational flyers.

By 4 p.m. employers began to walk around and talk with each organization in order to find out the goals, expectations, and future plans of each organization.

While doing so, companies also asked representatives for their resumes and gave helpful tips to the organizations.

“We had an opportunity to talk with professional in our community and they told us constructive criticism about how we can continue to become better women for when we graduate and leave FSC,” Kieriay Moyer, Zeta Tau Alpha Treasurer, said.

The recruiters from each company signed in at the front table and were given a sheet to write down comments about each organizations booth that they visited.

In the end, they turned these comments into to the representatives of the Career Center. Coso announced that a cash prize would be awarded to the booths that came in first, second and third place.

The prize placement will be determined by the positive feedback given by the recruiters.

While the recruiters mingled about they were offered light refreshments and take-away items from each organization, such as buttons and ribbons representing specific organizations.

While student representatives had the opportunity to showcase their own leadership skills, most of them participated for the betterment of their organization.

Brenden Peterson, Pi Kappa Phi Vice President, said:

“I believe that Pi Kappa Phi’s reputation will really be helped by this expo because the fact that potential employers are going to come by and see our presentation, and learn what we are about.  That’s our whole goal here: to really spread the word on what were about.”

The Reverse Career Expo was a new idea that the Career Center decided to try out in hope of expanding and bettering for years to come on Florida                 Southern’s campus.

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