Notre Dame is hosting its annual Winter Career and Internship Fair today from 4-8 p.m. in the Joyce Center field house. This event is designed to provide students with opportunities to talk to representatives from companies in a plethora of fields. Sponsored by the Career Center, the Winter Career Internship Fair is free of cost to students from Notre Dame, Saint Mary's, Holy Cross and other local universities.Students who attend the fair will have the chance to speak with any representative from the almost 150 companies attending. Anita Rees, coordinator of the event, said students should take advantage of the opportunity to get a head start on their careers."Here career fairs are important because students can get exposure to employers that other schools can get," she said. "It's a tremendous opportunity for exploring these companies and a tremendous learning avenue."According to Rees, Notre Dame tops schools like Stanford, Duke, University of California, Berkeley and Yale in terms of the employers it attracts to campus for the fair. Notre Dame is an appealing cite for employers to send representatives, she said."Employers have narrowed the list of schools at which they recruit, and we're at the top of the list," Rees said. "That's exciting and Notre Dame students are very attractive [to employers]."Rees explained the career center was able to bring in employers from fields uncommon to other career fairs because of the reputation of Notre Dame's students."We have employers in advertising, sports casting, journalism, public relations affairs and health care," she said. "We have employers in communications and sports publishing."A variety of corporations will have representatives at the fair, including UBS, Arnold Worldwide and Hill Holiday.Additionally, the Central Intelligence Agency, Abercrombie & Fitch, General Electric, Arnold Worldwide, Time Inc., Hewlett Packard, Johnson & Johnson, the Vanguard Group, the National Football League and ESPN will have representatives in attendance."You will have a world-class financial banking corporation next to a non-profit organization next to a U.S. governmental agency," Rees said.Students of all ages have expressed interest in the event. Freshman Sara Carter thinks this career fair will be better than the fall career fair."[The fall] was very well organized, however, it was geared more towards upper classmen," she said. "I expect it to be bigger than the last one and it will probably have more opportunities than the one in the fall."Some students are excited about the prospect of meeting different business representatives."I am going just to meet some people from the business world and to make some contacts, to get my name out there," sophomore Mike Sweeny said.Others hope to leave the fair with prospective jobs, internships, or interviews."My goal is to obtain two interviews and to make some connections," said Tom Calahan, who graduated from Notre Dame last semester.While some attend the fair just for the experience, others prepare extensively."The first step is to go to the career center Web site," Calahan said. "From there, I make a list of all of the companies I want to approach and then I go on their Web sites to gain information about these companies."In conjunction with the Career and Internship Fair, the career center is sponsoring a Diversity Reception to promote employers who emphasize fair employment practices. It will be held from noon to 2:30 p.m. today in the Monogram Room of the Joyce Center. Jonika Moore, coordinator of the Diversity Reception, said the two events go hand-in-hand."The Diversity Reception was drawn out of the Career fair," Moore said. "It's about organizations who support and embrace diversity and encouraging networking and relationship building."According to Moore, 151 representatives from 70 companies will be at the reception. 300 students have already reserved a spot."This means they will receive business cards and a name badge," Moore said. "We expect more to come."She added the Diversity Fair is not as formal as the career fair."It is strictly people talking to people connecting like a touch point," Moore said.Like the Winter Career and Internship Fair, the Diversity Reception is free to students.Any student can benefit from today's events, Rees said."I encourage all students whether they know what they want to do or not to visit these employers," she said.
