Wrigley Mullen listens as recruiters share information about their company. Photo: Darryl E. Owens
Wrigley Mullen had everything she needed.
Dark business suit.
A folder stuffed with five resumes.
Her go-getter attitude.
What Mullen — a senior business technology major at Beacon College in Leesburg, Fla. — didn’t have lined up yet was … a job.
She hoped to address that deficiency earlier this month at the college’s Annual Job Fair.
Thirty corporate representatives from 19 organizations educated, interviewed, and mentored more than 100 students who converged on the Beacon Student Center.
Employers on hand included:
Accessible Home of Central Florida; Aflac; Beacon College Work Study; Brown & Brown; Easterseals Camp Challenge; CareerSource Central Florida; Citizens First Bank; City of Eustis; Holiday Inn Express & Suites Tavares; Leesburg Regional Medical Center Foundation; LassiterWare Insurance Leesburg; Love Thy Neighbor; Massey Services; Morrison Preschool; Orlando Health; Sherwin Williams Company; Southwest Airlines Co.; U.S. Census; and Florida Division of Vocational Rehabilitation.
Arriving early, Mullen strategically attacked her job search. With her five resumes in hand, she hopscotched between employers hoping to drum up interest in her skills as a graphics artists.
Corporate participation in the job fair jumped 18.75 percent over last year, said Esteban Lopez, director of corporate and academic outreach at Beacon College, America’s first accredited baccalaureate school to educate primarily students with learning disabilities, ADHD, and other learning differences.
“We had more companies, more job opportunities, and more students were selected for interviews and subsequent jobs/internships that ever before,” Lopez said.
After making the rounds, Mullen didn’t walk away with a job offer. She did come away she said with “networking connections who said they’ll get in touch with me about graphic design opportunities.”
Other students fared even better.
Holiday Inn Express alone selected eight students for interviews. LassiterWare, a new partner, is recruiting two students for summer employment, and a number of students after the job fair interviewed with Brown and Brown.
“With unemployment rates at the lowest point in decades, Beacon’s Annual Job Fair is pivotal to connecting the local economy with a talented neurodiverse pool of students,” Lopez said. “Students were prepared and provided a good impression to our visitors,” Lopez said. “We look forward for another successful year for our Class of 2019.”