The Ohio State University at Lima recently connected students directly with local business leaders and regional hiring managers during the annual Lima Campus Coffee and Careers: Job and Internship Fair.
Designed to be casual and accessible to all students regardless of major or academic standing, the event allowed attendees to drop in between classes without formal attire. Students enjoyed complimentary coffee, fine-tuned their resumes and cover letters with on-site staff, and entered raffles for door prizes—all while exploring hands-on internship and employment opportunities in the region.
For local employers attending the event, recruiting directly on campus provides invaluable connections to emerging talent:
Miranda Brisson, Powerbuilt Material Handling
"We find an extreme amount of value out of connecting with colleges and the students there. We use them for like internships so that the student can get experience, and then we can kind of almost try out the student before hiring them on full time. So that's the biggest reason, and then also, even if we don't hire a student right now, they get visibility to our company. So if the name pops up in the future in a job search, they'll be like, 'Oh, I've seen them before,' and they have applied because of that reason as well."
Patti Baucom, Lima Memorial Health System
"It's important that we make the connection with college students to discuss with them what that career path and progression looks like in the career of their choice."
Katie Parlette, Perry Pro-Tech
"We're constantly hiring, always looking to add new talent to the team, especially the younger generation. They bring such fresh ideas and a new perspective to our company. We always have lots of internship opportunities as well as full-time employment opportunities and being headquartered right here in Lima, with the largest portion of our business here, it makes it for a great opportunity for students of all types of majors and degrees to be right here in Lima."
The collaborative initiative was organized jointly by the Ohio State Lima Office of Career Development alongside the Rhodes State College Offices of Career Development and Internships and Experiential Learning.
Students looking for follow-up resources or information on upcoming career services can reach out to Rachel Richardson, career development manager at Ohio State Lima, at (567) 242-7333 or via email at richardson.607@osu.edu.
