Angela Salinas / The Collegian
With the unemployment rate on the rise and an increasingly competitive job market, students are looking for a way to gain job experience while also helping their community.
On Sept. 1 Fresno State brought students and volunteering options together during the Community Service Opportunities Fair.
According to the United States Department of Labor, Fresno had a 16.2 percent unemployment rate during the month of July. Some students are looking somewhere else for work experience.
For 14 years, the Jan and Bud Richter Center for Community Engagement and Service-Learning have helped bring up to 74 different organizations on campus to inform students of not only volunteering opportunities, but job opportunities as well.
“It’s one-stop shopping,” said Trisha Studt, “All the organizations are in one place.”
Studt is a community partnership coordinator and has been involved with the Richter Center since 2002, working with students to give them more opportunities to participate in community benefit organizations.
The Richter Center provided 1,162,101 hours of community service to the community, surpassing the one million hours of service goal that President Dr. John Welty had originally announced in 2007.
More than 12,000 campus members worked to achieve President Welty’s goal.
“The total economic impact of the university’s community service-learning effort is over 28 million,” announced the school website.
The Wednesday event was held at the Memorial Gardens from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Ice cream was served at noon to those who stopped by.
“It seems like there are more students,” said Studt. “It’s harder for students to find jobs so volunteering is a great opportunity to get experience.”
Cristal Juarez, a student seeking a volunteer position at the fair went from booth to booth exploring her options.
“My mom has a daycare and I always liked kids and I am a child development major,” she said.
Students, however, were not the only one benefiting from this event.
“Agencies are needing more volunteers because of the budget,” said Renee Delport, Special Events and Projects coordinator who has been involved with the Richter Center since 2005. Delport coordinates many events and one-day service projects like Make A Difference Day.
“So far I think it’s awesome,” said Cristin Morton of Planned Parenthood. “It’s really nice for us to come to the students.”
“We always have had great results from this event,” said Wayne Hurley, CEO and founder of Empowerment Developing Positive Attitudes for a New Coping Experience (D.A.N.C.E.) Empowerment, Inc., a non profit organization, “[reaching] out to local communities in hopes of bringing about a positive change in the lives of today’s future leaders.”
By 11a.m., Hurley had 52 students who approached his booth for information and had already collected ten applications from students eager to begin.