More than 500 students and non-students attended the Educator’s Job Fair to connect with potential employers from several states.

“There are 71 registered school districts here today,” said employer relations specialist Barbara Kaufmann, who helped coordinate the event.

Kaufmann also helped employers get in contact with students prior to the event so they could submit resumes and set up interviews early. Brandon T. Lagana, director of planning & outreach, also helped with coordinating the event.

“We helped connect the employers to the students and expose them to the school districts,” Lagana said. “Employers seeking educators will meet candidates and give out interview tickets. The students who get interviews will come back later today to meet with their potential employers.”

This is the second year this job fair has had the type of format it did, according to Lagana. In previous years, students were not able to contact employers and schedule interviews prior to the event.

From 9 a.m. until 12:30 p.m., an open session took place. During the open session, students could walk up to any of the 71 booths available and converse and give resumes to potential employers.

“It was nice to have representatives from other states than Illinois,” said Gina Ravanesi, senior special education major. “Personally, out of school states were more talkative than Illinois schools here.”

Ravanesi had three interviews lined up for later in the day, including ones with schools from Arizona and Texas.

Nicole Pomerleau, senior special education major, said she was nervous going into the job fair.

“I was a lot more confident coming out of the fair,” Pomerleau said. “I knew a lot more prior to it than what I thought. I thought I’d just be newbie talking to employers, but I was a lot more prepared.”

Pomerleau had three interviews lined up for later in the day. One potential employer was from Kansas, and the other two were from public schools in Maryland.

Brenda Tijerina, human resources director for the Casa Grande Elementary school district of Arizona, had a full afternoon schedule with 20 interviews.

“NIU students have been beautifully prepared today,” Tijerina said. “The school has made this event very easy, and they helped us make contact with students prior to the event, unlike the other two universities we’re attending fairs for.”

Tijerina said half of her interviews later that day were set up prior to the event, unlike other schools’ fairs.

“Kudos to Barbara Kaufmann for helping us connect with the students early,” Tijerina said. “They posted online preparation work for the students, and we were able to get ahold of resumes prior to this day, which was really nice.”

Tijerina sat at the Grade Casa Elementary School’s booth with Maria Rascon, the school’s director of special education.

“The candidates were able to talk to us early, which made it excellent for us,” Rascon said. “It gave us a great opportunity to talk to students early and prepare for today.”

The next event for education students is the Retail Leadership Expo from 5 to 8 p.m. on March 28 in the Barsema Alumni and Visitors Center. It is a networking event for students in the department, and pre-registration has already begun.

For more information and to apply, visit www.niu.edu/careerservices/EmpRetailLeadership/index.shtml