By Chris Thoms
When it comes to helping Buffalo State College newly minted teachers get a job, the Career Development Center doesn’t fool around in April.
For the 25th year, BSC seniors, graduated students and alumni are participating with nine area colleges and universities in the Teacher Recruitment Days.
The employment interviews with school district representatives from across the country were held this April 3 and 4 in the Buffalo Convention Center,
The other colleges involved were:
- Canisius College
- Daemen College
- D’Youville College
- Houghton College
- Medaille College
- Niagara University
- St. Bonaventure University
- SUNY Fredonia
- University at Buffalo
“We send the most students,” said Stephanie Zuckerman, the director of the BSC Career Development Center and chairperson of TRD. “Hundreds of BSC students attended TRD last year.”
To attend the event, BSC students had to be certified to teach in New York state in September and be a graduate or upcoming graduate.
TRD is sponsored by the Niagara Frontier College Placement Association, which is made up of professionals from 18 area two- and four-year colleges and universities.
About 3,000 school districts were invited to the Convention Center for TRD the placement association said.
Strategy sessions held at BSC
Zuckerman organized strategy workshops in Grover Cleveland Hall that 30 students attended on March 21 and 27.
Zuckerman recommended to the students that they do their homework on a community’s school district that the aspiring teachers wish to work for.
Two students views
“I’m going to be open to either working outside of Western New York, or in it,” said Dan Kiesl, a New York certified technical education teacher and BSC grad student. “I just got certified a month ago.”
Another candidate wants to stick closer to home.
“I’m going to focus primarily on Erie County,” said Jaclyn Hutchinson, who will graduate BSC in May. “I don’t want to leave.”
Organizers said they want TRD to help both students.
“TRD is often an opportunity to make connections,” Zuckerman said at the end of the workshop. To illustrate her point, the blackboard behind her was filled with a map of the Buffalo Convention Center that she drew in chalk.
Contact Chris Thoms at Pthoms2980@msn.com
|
