Ask any college student what the most stressful part of the college process is, and you’re likely to get an answer involving internships or careers. The vast majority of universities around the country provide resources to their students to aid them in their career path and Fairfield University is no exception.
Although Fairfield is listed as a liberal arts college, the student population is nearly divided in half between both the Dolan School of Business and College of Arts & Sciences,1,576 in the DSB and 1,527 in the CAS, according to Fairfield University’s Office of Institutional Research. As both schools offer a combined total of 36 different majors, internship and career resources must span a wide range of fields.
Some students at Fairfield believe that there is an imbalance of resources provided to the DSB and the CAS, with career opportunities favoring Dolan. “I believe that the Dolan School of Business is held to a higher standard compared to the College of Arts & Sciences,” says English major Christopher Capparis ‘19. In order to get a better idea of all the opportunities available to both Dolan School of Business and Arts & Sciences students, Stephanie Gallo, associate director of career services, gave some insight on the inner workings of the Academic and Career Development Center.
There are a variety of career-oriented events provided to students of both schools through ACDC. Stags in the City is a program that has been at Fairfield for the past four to five years, which takes students to the New York City area to visit both financial groups and other large corporations, such as Vineyard Vines and NBC.
Another well-known event held at Fairfield is the bi-annual Career and Internship Fair. While the Big Four firms are always present, corporations who are likely looking to hire finance and accounting majors, there are many other companies in attendance that are interested in hiring all majors. “If students came with an open mind they would see the opportunities. What happens is they walk in and feel overwhelmed … they end up not talking to anybody,” commented Gallo on the experience some Arts & Sciences students have at the Career and Internship Fair.
Feedback from both students and those who work in the Career Center point out that the problem seems not to lie in opportunities provided, but the way these opportunities are communicated to students. “I mostly feel as if DSB takes a more aggressive approach with their students … I would like to see the college of Arts & Sciences push their students as much as a business student,” said digital journalism major Gabrielle Arlotta ‘19.
The Dolan School of Business recognizes what a crucial resource the ACDC is to college students, “DSB puts on the Professional Development Series … it is a defined professional series comprised of events used by the school of business but they also use our workshops… they’re essentially re-packaging our workshops” said Gallo.
This series encourages DSB students to utilize the opportunities provided to them by the Career Center, a program that has no equivalent in the college of Arts & Sciences. “I think the issue is that Arts & Sciences have not built the same development programs that DSB has built,” says finance major and economics minor Bryce Talbot-Dion ‘19.
Essentially, the opportunities are there for Arts & Sciences students, the issue is that they may not know about them; Gallo’s final comment was, “We have the resources, we just need the students.”
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