For the first time STU will be offering a mentorship and internship program for students.
New Brunswick’s post-secondary education department has partnered with STU to offer third-year residents of the province a chance to obtain skills and experiences for job searching after graduation.
Trish Murray-Zelmer, coordinator of the new Liberal Arts Advantage program, says it will help students to use their liberal arts degree towards a professional work experience.
“We also want to foster a connection with various alumni who are working as various professionals who have gotten their liberal arts degree and leverage that relationship a little more in order to benefit those students who are looking to get into the work force.”
Forty students will be chosen and partnered up with a STU alumnus mentor who works in their field of study. Twenty of those 40 students will be selected to participate in a paid internship over the summer.
The application deadline is Nov. 1. The program starts at the end of November, lasting until April.
For students to be eligible to apply, they must be in their third year, a Canadian citizen with an N.B. healthcare card or a member of a First Nations community in the province.
Murray-Zelmer said there are alumni mentors from a wide variety of majors, but criminology and journalism are the most common. She says this program will help students with the career decision-making process.
“A lot of job searching in New Brunswick is about networking and connections. So, we’re trying to help students build that professional network and have those professional contacts for their future careers,” she said. “We want to help students supplement the degree with these kind of job search skills and career decision making skills to tip the scales in their favour so they get a job that they’re happy with in their field once they graduate.”
