Several University organizations and schools co-hosted the Global Development Fair in Bryant Hall Friday.
The event was the result of the combined efforts of the Global Development Studies major, the Career Center, the Center for Global Health, the Batten School of Public Policy, the Department of Economics and the Society for International Development, said Everette Fortner, associate vice president of career and professional development.
"The Society of International Development selected us to host [the Global Development Fair] and in concert with them we reached out to a lot of organizations that we know hire," Fortner said. "We were able to reach a broader group of companies that we may not normally have access to."
While the Career Center handled all the logistics for the event, the Society of International Development advertised the event to its member organizations in order to get wider company participation, SID Program Manager Kara Frazier said.
"We were asked to partner on the event and our primary contribution was to advertise the event to our institutional members and try to get our institutional members to participate," Frazier said. "A relatively good portion of the organizations [at the event] were SID Washington members."
The purpose of the fair was to give students interested in careers in Global Development the chance to learn about and network with a wide variety of companies, Fortner said.
"Careers in Global Development really require networking and meeting companies and understanding their specific application process," Fortner said. "By bringing companies here, students are are able to make contacts and understand the differences [between companies] and know what might be the best fit for them."
The Career Center also offered students the opportunity to network with attending organizations prior to Friday's fair, Fortner said.
"On Thursday we had a Global Development Reception at Batten where about 30 companies with about 75 company representatives came and set up around the room," Fortner said. "It was an opportunity for students to network with the companies."
While the fair was largely helpful, the reception the night before may have been more harmful to the event than helpful, fourth-year Batten student Madeleine Shaw said.
"I thought it was a great opportunity for students to be exposed to the field and get experience meeting employers, speaking with employers, networking and asking questions about global development," Shaw said. "[However,] for those students that had signed up for both the night and career day it made it difficult...not to have the exact same conversation with the exact same people both days because it was the same layout both times."
Pre-fair events before Thursday hosted 144 students, while the Thursday and Friday events hosted 132 and 276 students, respectively, Fortner said. Overall, Fortner said the fair was a success and will likely lead to more events like this in the future.
"Now that we've got a feel for the student interest we'll probably do it in a bigger space and I suspect we could recruit double the companies," Fortner said.
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