Faculty and Staff for Student Excellence is hosting its fifth annual Career Dinner Symposium at 6 p.m. in the Indiana Memorial Union ?Tudor Room.
The event is open to all, but students should have RSVP’d before attending the symposium so they can be matched with professionals they are interested in ?speaking with.
Caty Munden, a FASE senior peer adviser, said during the dinner that students are assigned to sit with a professional in a discipline they are interested in pursuing.
“We hope that students learn about a field or career that they may be interested in, that they make a contact who can continue to provide assistance throughout their journey and that they feel as though they better understand what is needed to be successful in a field they are passionate about,” ?Munden said.
FASE Director Patrick Smith said the idea of the dinner is to bring together students and professionals for the purposes of networking, which could lead to further mentoring opportunities such as job shadowing or ?internships.
FASE Mentor Annalee Patel said she attended the dinner last year and met Judge Valeri Haughton and ?Megan Lewis.
She said when she started to look for internships a month later and craved hands-on experience, she emailed Lewis and set up an interview.
“Typically, students our age think of internships as either running errands or buying coffee,” Patel said. “However, I got really lucky.”
She said she helps draft legal documents, attend court hearings, file motions and interact with all the actors within the criminal justice system.
Additionally, she said she has learned valuable accounting and management skills through the internship she received.
“My boss always tells me she wants me to get the ‘real idea’ of how an attorney’s life is, because law school does not teach the practicalities of our field,” Patel said. “I feel tremendously lucky to not only have a great boss, but to have gained a tremendous mentor and have solidified my passion for my future ?career.”
Patel said some of the biggest moments in her life came from chance encounters, something FASE was responsible for making happen throughout her ?undergraduate career.
FASE Senior Peer Adviser Phillisha Wathen said the dinner taught her how to professionally engage and network within a formal setting while also receiving the opportunity to ask professionals questions about her intended career.
“Through FASE, I’ve developed a core set of professional, communication and leadership skills that will translate into opportunities in a wide variety of career fields,” she said.
Wathen, who is a 21st Century Scholar, said she began attending FASE events her freshman year. She said the program offers many leadership opportunities and services that go beyond the typical expectations of what a mentor ?does or is.
“FASE means providing service to the students of IU and the Bloomington community by offering a means to improve leadership and communication skills to benefit students’ future careers,” FASE Marketing Liaison Libby Gress said.
Gress said FASE’s goal is to help students succeed academically and socially and develop skills along ?the way.
She said the Career Dinner Symposium is one of many educational, social, philanthropic and professional events throughout the school year.
