The Morgridge Center for Public Service and SuccessWorks at the College of Letters and Science are prepared to launch this fall’s Public Service Fair virtually on Wednesday, Sept. 16.
While typically hosted in-person, this semester’s virtual Public Service Fair still provides students the opportunity to meet with leaders from local, state and national nonprofit and governmental organizations in a personable setting.
The Public Service Fair will be hosted on the Handshake platform, which all UW students have access to through their NetID. Students can join virtually to discover a wide range of volunteer opportunities, internships and jobs.
The Public Service Fair expects 50 organizations to attend the online conference — with more still signing up. The virtual fair will give students the chance to meet up in chat rooms similar to Zoom with any organization they sign up for.
To get the most out of all the Public Service Fair has to offer, Kathleen Rause, the SuccessWorks internship coordinator, recommends students take some time ahead of the fair to plan out what organizations they want to interact with.
Rause says a bit of planning is necessary so students can sign up for a time slot to talk to the organizations and employers they are interested in. The time slots will be one-on-one chats between 10 to 15 minutes, giving students plenty of time to ask questions and get to know the organization on a personal level.
Rause notes many of these organizations are in great need of students due to COVID-19 challenges with recruiting — just as much as students are in need of a platform to reach out to potential employers and discover career building activities during the pandemic.
In the virtual format, Rause believes the face-to-face interaction provided by Handshake will allow students to take a break from scrolling through online job sites. In real-time scenarios are valuable to creating connections — a key element in finding the right volunteer, internship or job position.
Rause encourages all interested students to check out what the fair has to offer on Handshake. The opportunities are only a few clicks away!