Students looking for jobs beyond the finance, consulting or technology industries or just looking for ways to serve the “Common Good” after graduation have a new resource — the University is hosting the first annual Brown/Rhode Island School of Design Nonprofit Career Fair today. Thirty-eight charitable employers in areas such as education, activism and government will congregate in Sayles Hall to recruit both Brown and RISD students.
A separate fair for jobs in the nonprofit sector in fall 2011 served as the basis for the event, said Andrew Simmons, director of the Center for Careers and Life After Brown.
“(It’s) still a work in progress,” Simmons said. “We had never done that before, and it opened up another list of employers.”
Representatives who participated in the 2011 fair said the spring semester would be a better time to come to campus because they would have a better idea of what they want from students, Simmons said. He added that the nonprofit fair acts as an extension of the Spring Career Fair, which is why the two fairs are being held the same day.
“We decided to take the greater event and divide it in half,” he said.
The University’s partnership with neighboring RISD will provide benefits for students from both institutions, Simmons said. The University will benefit from RISD’s connections to more specialized art organizations, and RISD students will benefit from access to a variety of other career opportunities they might not have heard about otherwise, he said.
Simmons said the nonprofit fair serves as a way for students to learn about other philanthropic opportunities within the University such as Impact Providence and Careers in the Common Good Summer in New York City — both are funded internship programs available to Brown students.
The fair is in part a response to student demand for job and internship opportunities that serve the “common good” Simmons said. “There are so many alumni in those areas as well.”
“I want to pursue a career in the common good and work with some less represented people and communities,” said Rory MacAneney ’14, who plans to attend the fair.
“I’m not ready to find an internship or job,” Christine Mullen ’16 said. “I think I’m going to start worrying next year.”
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