“Grad Fair” offers graduating seniors an opportunity to gather their supplies for the commencement ceremony from several vendors.
This semester, “Grad Fair” is scheduled to be held on March 14 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and will continue on March 15 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Associate Director of Alumni Programming Jennifer O’Neil explained how “Grad Fair” will be organized.
“We try to make stations so to speak,” said O’Neil. “The first station you visit are those things you actually need to do. You need to check with admissions to make sure the information on your diploma is correct. It’s the Office of Institutional Research that does the exit survey, so that’s an absolute ‘must’ as well. So, we put them together. You have things like your graduation announcements, cap and gown and the Southeastern ring. Those things all kind of go together as well. It’s like you’re doing all of your shopping in one area. Then the other section is departments from on campus like career services and the Alumni Association.”
O’Neil added that there will be a section tailored towards graduate students.
“For people interested in continuing their education, they can visit all of those programs all in one spot,” said O’Neil. “We’ve had a little participation for our graduate programs in the past, but we haven’t had a strong presence there. This year, we have 10 or 12 programs that are going to be represented in the ‘Grad Fair.’”
Alumna Brooke Robichaux talked about how “Grad Fair” helped her prepare for graduation.
‘“Grad Fair’ was just a day where you can go and get everything together and take you cap and gown pictures, and they also had some yearbooks there set up,” said Robichaux. “They had some booths set up as well, like with the Alumni Association, some opportunities that you can have after graduation. I would’ve liked to spend more time there when I went last spring. I didn’t get to spend much time because I was between classes. So, I think if people take time to explore the resources there, it could really help them out.”
Emails will be sent this week and next week to graduating seniors containing information about what opportunities will be offered at “Grad Fair.”
O’Neil explained that seniors should take advantage of this opportunity.
“They don’t want to miss it because it’s like a one-stop shop,” said O’Neil. “If you don’t come to ‘Grad Fair,’ then you end up having to visit all of the offices separately, and it just takes so much more time. I would really encourage people to come and get it done that day, and then you don’t have to worry about anything before graduation.”
