Businesses from around New England gathered to provide internships and summer opportunities for students at the Center for Career and Experiential Education’s annual Spring Career Expo on Wednesday, March 27 at the Ryan Center.
Inclusive for all majors, 120 organizations from across New England were involved with the expo, said Holly V. Hernandez, assistant director for employer relations at the CCEE.
The events that the University of Rhode Island typically provides include experiences tailored towards specific industries, which makes the spring expo stand apart, Hernandez said. Employers are willing to hire students from any major, as they are more concerned with qualities such as professionalism, adaptability and enthusiasm.
“We know too that many students aren’t sure of what career path they are most interested in, so it is important to have an event where everyone is welcome.” Hernandez said.
The wide variety of businesses included Save The Bay, We Love New England Providence, Manson Construction, ABC 6 News, Narragansett Police Department, WaterFire Providence, Massachusetts Department of Transportation and Steere Engineering.
Manson Construction, a marine construction company, has been returning back to campus for the past 10 years to recruit students for internships and full time opportunities, Engineering Manager Kyle Dickens said.
“The work we do is marine based and the University of Rhode Island has an ocean engineering program that’s developed some really good students for us in the past,” Dickens said.
Many of the businesses present at the expo, including Steere, have had success in the past with employing URI alumni.
“Most of the employees we have now are from URI, probably half,” Steere employee Owen Bernard said. “We’ve had a lot of success here and were looking to grow as a company.”
Bernard is an alum himself, having graduated from URI in 2022. Along with him, many other businesses had alumni present and ready to answer questions, such as Jessica Henry, a 2018 graduate and assistant news director at ABC 6 News.
“I want to inspire young journalists, connect with them and empower them to apply to entry level jobs,” Henry said. “I think that as journalists we have an opportunity to do something bigger than ourselves every day … I think that’s empowering for students to hear, especially coming from a graduate.”
Directed towards upperclassmen nearing graduation, many businesses at the expo provided entry-level job positions, such as the Justice Resource Institute, which offered teacher assistant positions, medical assistant positions and direct care positions for bachelor’s-level students, recruiting coordinator Jessica Rose said.
Fourth-year economics major Janisia Lopes expressed interest in finding an entry-level job.
“I’m a senior and I just want to see what the options are in the workforce as an economics major,” Lopes said. “I’m hoping to find that somebody is open to having a data analysis position.”
The possibilities for jobs range wide, with opportunities at engineering enterprises to careers with the Air Force, which currently includes a total of 130 positions ranging from logistics, medical maintenance and aircrew operations, Sgt. Jake Israragua said.
“We had a few students today in regards to our civilian careers because we also hired for Air Force civilian service, and then we had some individuals interested in authorizations,” Sgt. Israragua said.
In addition to entry-level jobs the expo included many other opportunities, which offered a more experimental hands-on experience. These opportunities allowed students like Olvia Collette, a third-year double majoring in psychology and criminology and criminal justice to better understand what types of jobs they may want.
“I’m a junior and I’m just trying to figure out what I want to do and what I’m interested in,” Colette said. “I felt like this was a good way to check out my options.”
The Narragansett Police Department was one organization that offered an exploratory program for students. The program, Citizens Police Academy, is a nine week program consisting of classroom discussions and field demonstrations by members of the Police Department.
“The CPA is an opportunity for students to kind of get an idea of hands-on experience of what we do in law enforcement, what we may encounter on the day to day,” Sgt. Brian McGovern said.
Future career fairs can be found on Handshake, the URI Events Page and the CCEE website. For more information about upcoming jobs, opportunities and events on campus, visit