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Cottey Partner Fair coming Saturday
While Cottey College’s first-year students arrive on Friday, Aug. 18, and second-, third- and fourth-years students move in on Sunday, Aug. 20, it is the event on Saturday which unites the school and Nevada community as a new school year begins.
The annual Community Dinner and Partner Fair will be at the Franklin P. Norman City/County Community Center, from 6-8 p.m., on Saturday, Aug. 19.
Funded by a grant through Missouri Campus Compact, each year between 40-60 different businesses, churches, clubs and service agencies set up tables and displays.
Said Renee Hampton, coordinator for career planning and experiential learning, “The partner fair puts Cottey and the community together and brings something beneficial to each of them.”
Hampton, coordinator of this Saturday’s event, said the fair introduces the community to the diversity of students and faculty who come from across the United States as well as around the world.
Businesses, churches and service organizations are encouraged to showcase their products and services through displays, promotional materials, samples, giveaways and demonstrations.
More importantly, students are introduced to the many opportunities for internships and volunteer service.
Hampton explained the school’s stress on internships and community service. “A lot of students, after attending classes for four years, find it hard to get a job. But those who have had an internship and volunteered at different places while getting an education are more successful.”
Internships and volunteering increases student success several ways, according to Hampton. First, students get an idea of what various types of jobs are like. Further, she pointed out employers tend to hire people they already know.
“An internship or longer term volunteer relationship is an opportunity for students to demonstrate to a potential employer their abilities,” said Hampton.
Further, she noted how volunteering shows the student has empathy and can establish positive working relationships with others.
“And all of this goes onto their resume,” said Hampton. “Students get a better idea of what they like and what work is like, while internships and volunteering fills out student resumes from the beginning of their time here.”
While internships and volunteering have long range benefits for students they also receive the more immediate benefit of earning academic credit at Cottey. Interns earn one credit for a minimum of 45 hours, two credits for 90 hours while those interning over summer can earn up to 3 credits.
“Over the course of the last school year, our students were involved in 44 internships and volunteered a total of 11,323 hours, with nearly all of that for local groups,” said Hampton. “Both our students and the community give a lot and gain a lot.”
Cottey’s coordinator for career planning and experiential learning said she is always on the lookout to expand the number of internship and volunteer opportunities as well as types of experiences.
Begun around the year 2000, the early years of the Cottey-community welcome event was held as an outdoor picnic and an introduction to area churches with karaoke rounding out the evening.
“While I didn’t come on board until 2011, I’ve heard how some years it was pretty hot out there with not enough shade,” said Hampton. “So being inside the air-conditioned community center lets groups and students focus on what we’re all there for.”
This fall, Cottey’s estimated enrollment will be about 300 students with several additional faculty having been hired to fully staff the four new majors which include secondary education; criminology; organizational leadership; and women, gender and sexuality studies.
Course expansion was also seen as this past summer, Cottey offered several online courses.
The first day of classes at Cottey will be on Tuesday, Aug. 22 with the opening convocation being held at 7 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 28 at the Haidee and Allen Wild Center for the Arts Auditorium. The featured speaker will be the 1977 Cottey graduate, Dr. Ann Pendergast, the Anthony R. Means Cancer Biology Professor and Vice Chair of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at Duke University School of Medicine.
Information on Cottey volunteers and interns as well as registration for the 2017 Community Dinner and Partner Fair, can be obtained by contacting Hampton at 667-6333, ext. 2184, or email rhampton@cottey.edu.