绿奴天花板

Students of all majors had the opportunity to network in a lighthearted way on campus Wednesday.

The Southard Institute for Sales Excellence hosted 鈥淐arnival and Connections,鈥� which brought together working professionals and students over carnival games and fair food. A wide range of industries were represented, from manufacturing to logistics, finance, medical, and HR placement.听

There was also inflatable axe throwing. And basketball, a football toss and corn dogs.

The event was organized by students in an advanced sales course.

Stacey Schetzsle, director of the sales institute, said most of the companies in attendance frequently work with the institute, but the advanced sales students were tasked with identifying additional companies that they thought would be a good fit. The students then called on the companies to sell the event and invite them to come.听

鈥淭hey鈥檙e learning all the skills that they are going to use when they graduate and they start their first entry-level position,鈥� Schetzsle explained. 鈥淏ut all the students get to benefit from it because we鈥檙e bringing the companies to campus.鈥澨�

Naomi Vogel 鈥�25, was there representing Hercules Sealing Products, a hydraulic equipment supplier out of Clearwater, was in the professional selling class last year. After inviting the company to this same event, she earned an internship, and now she is employed at Hercules full time.听

鈥淚t鈥檚 interesting to be on this side of the table, and I now get to meet students and bring on new interns to the same program,鈥� she said.

Her advice for students hoping to have a similar success story is to make the small connections.

鈥淚t鈥檚 just really valuable, and you never know who you鈥檙e going to connect with.鈥�

Schetzsle said Vogel鈥檚 story is not uncommon.

鈥淎ctually, we get that a lot. It鈥檚 a great full circle moment for us,鈥� she said, 鈥渂ecause they were in that same position, and now a year, two years, five years out, they鈥檙e back and recruiting,鈥� Schetzsle said.

Teddy Riser 鈥�26, an entrepreneurship major looking to go to law school, is not looking for an internship or a job at the moment, he said, but he was treating the event as 鈥減ractice,鈥� at selling himself.听

鈥淵ou know, one day I鈥檓 gonna need to convince a jury to decide in my favor,鈥� he said.听

Ben Parsons 鈥�28, a business administration major, was assigned to attend the event for business speech class. He admitted to it being convenient 鈥� because he wanted to network, anyway.听

鈥淭o be able to not only get an assignment done, but to also be able to network with local businesses and people that can hook you up with internships and provide professional advice, is always something to appreciate,鈥� he said.