Schools

Photo of the Day: Bristol Organizations Seek RWU Interns

Take a glimpse at some of the sights around Bristol and Warren.

Local organizations including , , and set up booths at the Career Fair on Wednesday.

The following is a release from Roger Williams University:

Nearly 500 Roger Williams University undergraduate students converged on the RWU Recreation Center yesterday for the inaugural Career Day. Career Day (previously the annual career fair) featured more than 70 employers from across the region including construction and architectural groups, financial institutions, non-profits and more.

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Roger Williams University President Donald Farish kicked off the event in a special opening session, offering some thoughtful words for students and alumni participants.

“Our students are going into a very uncertain world and it’s very helpful to them to speak with people who have shared some of their experiences and are out there in the workplace right now,” Farish said. “With more than 40 years of graduates in attendance, Career Day is a great opportunity for students to learn fromalumni with first-hand experience. Connections are more important than ever.”

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Roger Williams student participants spent the afternoon networking with employers and representatives from graduate programs, exploring internship positions, jobprospects and graduate admissions opportunities.

Later that day, they had the opportunity to attend a series of 15 career panel presentations from science and math, to the performing arts and government, to communications and law enforcement. Some 80 alumni participants staffed thepanels, offering insight into various industries and recommendations for transitioning into their fields.

Kyle Adamonis ’82, who currently serves as senior vice president of human resources at Taco, Inc., encouraged students to gain as much on-the-job experience aspossible before graduation.

“When you’re going on an internship, it’s important to get solid work experience,” she says. “You don’t want to be a gopher – employers are looking for real job experience. You need to sell yourself.”  

H. Brian Dumeer ’06, L’09, an attorney who recently opened a general litigation practice alongside fellow RWU alumnus Scott Carlson ’06, L’09, echoed that same theme, encouraging students to build their résumés and life experience through study abroad opportunities.

“You can learn a lot in the classroom – and professors at Roger Williams are fantastic – but what you learn with your boots on the ground in other countries is phenomenal. It changes you for life.”

The new Career Day program replaced the University’s annual career fair, which ran for 15 years. For the first time, students not only had the chance to meet withpotential employers from across the region, but also to participate in mockinterviews with alumni volunteers and to sit-in on two back-to-back afternoon panel discussions.

According to Lisa Raiola, assistant vice president for university advancement who leads much of the alumni programming at RWU, the comprehensive Career Day approach not only engaged undergraduate students in additional career-building exercises, but also further engaged successful alumni in the RWU community.

“This special day is a chance for RWU alumni to connect with our students and help them navigate a very complex journey – particularly in today’s economic climate – in what I call backpack to briefcase,” Raiola says. “Today’s program is at the heart of what we’re trying to do with our alumni program: Engage alumni in the life of the University and the lives of current students. Career Day offers a rare collaboration of faculty and students and alumni all coming together for a very important purpose, and that’s what makes a great University.”

Do you like to take pictures? Have you recently captured a shot of something neat in town? Send us your favorite shot from around Bristol and Warren and it could become our Photo of the Day! E-mail photos and a few sentences with information including when the photo was taken, where it was taken and who is in it, to sara.bagwell@patch.com or text them to (401) 835-8843.


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