Pensacola Christian College seniors, dressed in their best and résumés in hand, navigated through rows of tables in MacKenzie Great Hall. Christian school administration and business representatives filled the room for Educator Recruitment and Career Fair. Each table, featuring informative displays, neatly stacked business cards, and candy, promised a warm greeting.
Every spring, students are encouraged to attend Educator Recruitment and Career Fair to begin creating and developing relationships with Christian schools and businesses. This year, over 150 organizations attended the events held over three days, looking for PCC graduates to fill open positions and internships.
For his fourth time returning to PCC’s Educator Recruitment, alumnus Bryan McDonald came with Grace Christian School (GA) looking to fill elementary and secondary teaching positions. “We’ve had some good hires [from PCC]. That always keeps us coming back,” he said. “We like the fellowship of all the other Christian educators that are here and just revisiting as an alumnus is always a neat experience.”
Johnny Foti (Sr., NY), who was looking for athletic director, coaching, and physical education positions, acquired two interviews while attending the event. He was glad to have the opportunity to talk with several of the recruiters over the course of a few hours. “It’s really nice to just walk over to the MK, have booths set up from schools all over the country, all over the world, and have opportunities that we wouldn’t be able to have, or that it’d be hard to have [in order to] set up an interview,” he said. “It would be a lot more difficult than just coming over here to 96 different schools and having the option to do that.”
Eliana Slusser (Sr., TN) attended Educator Recruitment to visit with administrators she knew as well as look for open teaching positions in Georgia. “It was encouraging for me, talking with these school administrators, because it makes looking for a job a lot less intimidating. You see them face-to-face and you see that they’re just regular people and they’re eager to meet you. They’re just serving the Lord where they are,” she said. “I’ve talked to several administrators that would say, ‘It’s okay if this isn’t the school for you. We want you where God wants you.’”
During Career Fair, 63 companies greeted students about open positions and internships, including representatives from Answers in Genesis, FedEx Services, Warren Averett, Siemens, and the U.S. Secret Service.
Lauri Basham (Speech Education ’95, M.S. Speech Education ’97) attended Career Fair with FedEx Services to canvass for several positions in the company worldwide. “One of the things that we look for at FedEx is employees that come in with a growth and learning mindset. I think the graduates from Pensacola Christian College come in with that type of mindset,” she said. “When I started with FedEx, I worked in an individual contributor role. And managers I would work for would say, ‘How do I find more people like you?’ And so it led us into discussions about [PCC] and the type of education that I received.”
Eber Ruiz (Sport Management ’19) has been to PCC’s Career Fair three times previously, but this was his first time attending as an employer with Enterprise. “What I’ve heard from our HR department is that they hire quite a few of us from here, and I’ve heard nothing but good things from us,” he said. “PCC did a good job in training us, not only in our education, but also just self-development.”
Although he has a job lined up in his home state, Zack Swearingen (Sr., VA) attended Career Fair to begin conversations with businesses that attended. “I wanted to come in here, network a little bit, make some connections, and possibly look towards the future instead of just tomorrow,” he said. “I think a career fair is very beneficial for the students to see that there are businesses out there that are looking to hire instead of scouring the internet and seeing job upon job that’s only entry level. This gives us not only a path to success, but also the plan on how we can do it.”
For these college students, Educator Recruitment and Career Fair were only the first steps in a much larger world—their professional career! In a couple of months, these college seniors will continue their journey, one that once led them to PCC, and use their skills to influence their world for Christ.