STORY BY JENNIFER STIENSTRA
With the year quickly coming to a close, many graduates have begun searching for jobs in their field. The students in the corporate communications program are no exception.
To help make connections and talk to potential employers, the students hosted an event called Corp. Comm. Connects at Sheridan, inviting professionals and alumni in public relations and communications to spend the evening at Trafalgar Campus.
“It’s a networking event for alumni and communication professionals to come out and mingle and chat with us and talk about what goes on in the real world,” said Daniella Macri, a Corporate Communications student.
The event was essentially a large project organized by everyone in the program for their special events planning class, said Macri.
According to student Miranda Galati, many had their own roles to make the event possible.
“People were in charge of setting up the event for today, and also there was the networking side trying to connect to communication professionals and hopefully get our name out there,” said Galati.
Andy Coxhead, program coordinator for eight years, said the event is the perfect opportunity for students who’ll be graduating soon to learn about life after education and also gain industry exposure.
“There’s an opportunity for folks here to start making connections and to move from being a student to being a colleague with these folks that are visiting here tonight,” he said.
“This is an opportunity for our students to get some really positive feedback for what they’ve been doing over the past year.”
According to Michelina Williamson, this is the first time students have hosted and event such as this.
“In the past [we] did events for the Canadian Public Relations Society, or other organizations outside of the college,” she said.
“This year we decided to do something different and have an event that would benefit the students so we decided to hold our own networking event and invite the alumni of the program and other business professionals.”
Aside from students and professors, professionals from different agencies and even from all three levels of government attended the event.
Alumni from the program were also invited to the event to talk to students about life in public relations.
For alumni Phil Price, 27, who graduated in 2012, it was great to return and see people from his class at the event.
As for the event itself, Coxhead said it was a good change for the students, hosting an event that will benefit them.
“We’ve never done anything for our own students,” he said.
“We’ll probably for the next few years do something else again but I think every two or three years we’ll do something like this.
“It’s good for our image and our community.”