Workshop to aid LGBT

By Rasmieyh Abdelnabi

Career Services and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center are teaming up to hold a workshop about sexual orientation and career decision-making.

Mark J. Brostoff, associate director of the undergraduate career services at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, will make a presentation at the event.

“Gay Lives, Straight Jobs” is geared toward LGBT students who are looking for a job or making a decision about their career, said Margaret Cook, coordinator of the LGBT Resource Center.

“The fact is that discrimination still exists,” she said.

LGBT students need to figure out if they can be out of the closet in the workplace or in the job search process, Cook said.

This workshop will focus on ways to disclose sexual orientation on resumes and finding employers who are friendly to LGBT applicants, said Ellen Anderson, assistant director of Career Services.

The workplace is one’s second home, so being comfortable there is very important, she said.

“We really haven’t served [LGBT students] as well as we felt like we needed to,” Anderson said. “There are special issues that they have to deal with and so this is a way to reach out to students and provide services to them.”

Brostoff has given this presentation to more 120 schools, some in person and some via Internet Webcast. He is also the co-host of BloomingOUT, a news radio show dedicated to the happenings of the gay community. It is the only one of its kind in Indiana.

“The goal of the workshop is to inform LGBT students of how to effectively transition from college to the work place,” he said.

The workshop is from 7:30 to 9 p.m. today at the Campus Life Building, Room 100.