beast of the east
Active member
There's been a lot of talk about the SJU campus, and as one of you commented, maybe you haven't been on campus in a long while.
I've been as critical as anyone on redmen.com concerning the quality of student SJU is attracting and about the school in general. I'm still critical, but recently my outlook has been raised considerably.
As I typically try to do, when we have a position open we post at SJU in their career development office. When we did, we were told there was a jobs fair the following week and would we be interested in exhibiting. The jobs fair was the day after I would arrive home very late at night from a 4 day west coast trip, so I declined. There was a $200 fee per company, which I thought was foolish considering the benefit to the university of hiring their students.
When we declined, we received another offer inviting us to exhibit for free. I was still inclined to decline, but they were so gracious about the offer, decided to accept. They also offered that one of the Deans would like to meet with me if I had time, so we worked that in also.
The jobs fair was in Taffner Field house, which is a really nice building. As with the better conferences we attend, SJu staff was very gracious in helping us get set up, and also came by to thank us for participating. We met some really terrific kids, and offered two of them internships, one that has the potential of FT employment after. These were really bright, personable kids, and would represent SJU well in any era of the school. One was very near the top of his class in pharmacy school, 3.92 GPA in pharmacy, and also is in the President's society, students government, and drama club. The other had a full schoalrship to SJU and was an honors student and Stuyvesant HS grad.
At the conclusion of the jobs fair, someone from career development office personally escorted us to the library, whose exterior is familiar, but on the interior bears no comparison to the library we knew. There is a coffee shop on the first floor which is first class, and the upper floors are now offices which are also first rate. If memory serves me, they used to be classrooms. The Dean was impressive and gracious, and new to SJU. Unlike many academicians, she had solid industry experience and success, had fantastic academic achievements of her own, and was as warm and gracious as could be. Rather than lecture me about the school, she conversed easily and asked my opinions on some of their programs and offerings. She is seriously interested in forging relationships with the local business community to strengthen SJU in all ways.
I am still kind of dumbfounded at the transformation underway, and sheepishly embarrassed that as I have taken shots at the school some very good stuff is happening on campus that will make all alumni very proud of SJU.
I recently hired an older SJU alumnus that was caught in the downsizing of her long term position with an industry struggling to convert to the digital age. I am thrilled to have gotten such a high caliber resource and person. The kids I interviewed at the jobs fair were all terrific students.
If you haven't considered hiring an SJU kid for an internship or FT position, I'd strongly advocate you do both if you are in a position to influence such hirings. I'd also encourage any of you to visit the campus, which is dramatically improved over the campus we attended.
I've been as critical as anyone on redmen.com concerning the quality of student SJU is attracting and about the school in general. I'm still critical, but recently my outlook has been raised considerably.
As I typically try to do, when we have a position open we post at SJU in their career development office. When we did, we were told there was a jobs fair the following week and would we be interested in exhibiting. The jobs fair was the day after I would arrive home very late at night from a 4 day west coast trip, so I declined. There was a $200 fee per company, which I thought was foolish considering the benefit to the university of hiring their students.
When we declined, we received another offer inviting us to exhibit for free. I was still inclined to decline, but they were so gracious about the offer, decided to accept. They also offered that one of the Deans would like to meet with me if I had time, so we worked that in also.
The jobs fair was in Taffner Field house, which is a really nice building. As with the better conferences we attend, SJu staff was very gracious in helping us get set up, and also came by to thank us for participating. We met some really terrific kids, and offered two of them internships, one that has the potential of FT employment after. These were really bright, personable kids, and would represent SJU well in any era of the school. One was very near the top of his class in pharmacy school, 3.92 GPA in pharmacy, and also is in the President's society, students government, and drama club. The other had a full schoalrship to SJU and was an honors student and Stuyvesant HS grad.
At the conclusion of the jobs fair, someone from career development office personally escorted us to the library, whose exterior is familiar, but on the interior bears no comparison to the library we knew. There is a coffee shop on the first floor which is first class, and the upper floors are now offices which are also first rate. If memory serves me, they used to be classrooms. The Dean was impressive and gracious, and new to SJU. Unlike many academicians, she had solid industry experience and success, had fantastic academic achievements of her own, and was as warm and gracious as could be. Rather than lecture me about the school, she conversed easily and asked my opinions on some of their programs and offerings. She is seriously interested in forging relationships with the local business community to strengthen SJU in all ways.
I am still kind of dumbfounded at the transformation underway, and sheepishly embarrassed that as I have taken shots at the school some very good stuff is happening on campus that will make all alumni very proud of SJU.
I recently hired an older SJU alumnus that was caught in the downsizing of her long term position with an industry struggling to convert to the digital age. I am thrilled to have gotten such a high caliber resource and person. The kids I interviewed at the jobs fair were all terrific students.
If you haven't considered hiring an SJU kid for an internship or FT position, I'd strongly advocate you do both if you are in a position to influence such hirings. I'd also encourage any of you to visit the campus, which is dramatically improved over the campus we attended.
