–by Chelsea Lauren
Philosopher Alfred A. Montapert once said, “All lasting business is built on friendship.” That philosophy will be put into practice at the semi-annual Lourdes University Career Expo to be held on Sept. 30. This is when Lourdes University teams up with local businesses to make Sylvania community connections and share employment opportunities with Lourdes University students.
Lourdes Director of Career Services, Andrea Brown, helps Lourdes students find jobs on and off-campus, find internships, and develop professional connections within the Sylvania community and beyond during the fall semester and again in the spring semester.
Lucas County branch of UPS at the 2019 career expo welcomes students. 
Fulton County Health Center has attended previous Career Expos at Lourdes and is expected at this year’s expo as well. 
The Chick-fil-a hiring team is part of thethe 2019 fall Career Expo.
The Career Expo is an event exclusive to Lourdes University students. The event primarily targets undergraduate students. Employers, mentors, and graduate school representatives provide opportunities in various career fields. Not a single student attendee will come to the expo without someone to connect with. “Most of our clinical partners in nursing attend, such as Mercy and ProMedica hospitals, but we also have folks from local businesses such as Chick-fil-a, and professionals in criminal justice fields such as the Sylvania Police Department and even the FBI. University of Toledo College of Law, Mercy Health, Northwestern Mutual, Zepf Center Behavioral and Mental Health Services, and The Toledo Mud Hens are scheduled to attend this fall’s expo – just to name a few of the many businesses attending,” Brown explained.
“I really encourage students to attend the career expo at least once when we host it,” says Brown. “The Semi-annual Career Expo not only exposes students to potential job opportunities while they’re in school, but also connects students to professionals within their career interests, potential internships, and graduate school options. We know these community connections mean something by looking at post-graduation surveys; after the 2018-2019 school year, we had a response rate of 83 percent of our graduates. Of those who responded, 99 percent are either employed within their field, in graduate school, and/or taking a gap year in their career field before going to grad school.”