Workshop Provides Practical Career Preparation
The Stevens School of Business, Junior Achievement of New Jersey and group of corporate partners team up to help local high school students.
Nearly 150 students from local high schools recently visited the Stevens School of Business to bolster their skills and receive career advice from industry mentors and SSB students.
For the seventh consecutive year, SSB and Junior Achievement of New Jersey (JANJ), a non-profit organization that “inspires and prepares young people for success,” partnered to host a career-readiness workshop on the Stevens campus in Hoboken. Students from East Side High School, Technology High School, Boonton High School and Dickinson High School participated in an interactive program that covered important topics such as goal setting, improving soft skills, team building and succeeding in interviews.
"There are a lot of synergies between Junior Achievement and Stevens,” said Lindsay Hartelius, SSB’s associate director of undergraduate outreach, reputation and alumni affairs. “The mission of JA focuses on entrepreneurship and career development, two topics that we try to instill in our students at Stevens. We want our students to be creative problem solvers, and we strive to prepare them with the technological skills necessary for an ever-changing job market.”
Christy Biedron, Vice President of Education of JANJ, led the event that featured 35 corporate volunteers from Santander Bank, Valley Bank, Bank of America, Citigroup, HSBC, Colliers Engineering and Kearny Bank. Along with SSB students, the group of professionals guided students through activities and shared their own real-world experiences.
“If you are familiar with the Junior Achievement organization, then you definitely know Christy Biedron,” Hartelius said. “Christy works tirelessly running a variety of educational programs for the students in our state that need it the most.”
The program concluded with a campus tour and lunch for the students and the volunteers.
“Everyone could learn something new from this workshop,” Hartelius continued. “The volunteers did a great job of teaching the students about many relevant skills. Things like crafting your ‘elevator pitch’ to sell yourself, answering open-ended questions, and starting to build a network are necessary to compete in today’s job market.”