Transfer and career center offers services to students.
By Ty-Eshia Johnson
sac-ranger@alamo.edu
Undergraduate students planning to transfer to a university or seeking internship opportunities are advised to book an appointment with the transfer and career center at Moody Learning Center.
Advising team leader Cassandra Segura, who oversees the transfer and career center, said the center offers various college and transfer fairs for students.
“We help students with any type of transfer out when they are trying to transfer to a university,” Segura said. “We also help them with finding a career path and figuring out what they want to do in life,” she added.
Segura said the sooner students decide what they want to do career-wise the better because institutions have different requirements. Segura added that to qualify for some internships, students are required to maintain a certain GPA or complete a specific course.
“If you can intern as a freshman or sophomore, the sooner the better,” Segura said.
She explained that unpaid internships are easier to find but ones that pay have specific requirements. The college has a job bank for students to register and search for career opportunities. Additional websites to find intern positions are internships.com and internshipfinder.com.
Students are also encouraged to get involved in programs at the college that will help develop leadership potential.
“The one that we try to push for is the Student Leadership Institute,” Segura said.
According to Segura, the program offers free biweekly classes in which students work as a team. The program requires a 2.75 GPA and students must apply to join. Students involved in the program also meet for a monthly lab where they apply learned leader skills in exercises.
“I always like to say that employers will hire for hard skills and fire for soft skills,” Segura said. Soft skills refer to a person’s relationships with coworkers and hard skills refer knowledge and job performance.
Segura said students develop their ability to collaborate with others because it’s one of the main factors that employer’s look for.
She recommends a minimum of two internships, whether part-time or full-time. Segura said students who gain additional skills give them a greater advantage than the average applicant.
Segura suggests students take advantage of the FranklinCovey training “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective College Students” which is a paid program through the college.
“You’d be surprised by how many people who are working in higher education are here because they started off as a work-study,” Segura said.
