GPC creates new position
Sept. 5, 2008
Graduate Professional Council leaders hope a newly created career services counselor position will help students succeed once they leave MU.
GPC President Alaine Arnott and Vice President Sarah Symonds said the position was created to help both graduate and professional students on campus toward their ultimate goal: to get hired.
"A lot of us go back to school to become teachers or professors," Symonds said. "Some want to get back into the field, though. The new career services position will help us achieve just that."
The career services position was created for the sole purpose of helping graduate and professional students tailor their resumes and portfolios for specific fields. Arnott said some academic departments do not offer services specific enough to certain fields.
Graduate student Sampath Devaram now holds the position.
"Davaram has been taking surveys to see what is being offered in the different departments and then pulling it all together to see what services are missing and trying to fill in those gaps," Arnott said.
GPC held elections in April, and Arnott spent the next month shadowing then-President Jennifer Holland.
"I wanted to step into the presidential role in order to experience the politics on campus," Arnott said.
Holland will again be a member of the GPC executive board, but as secretary.
Holland and Arnott met several times in May to review the ins and outs of not only the group, but the administrative process as well. Arnott did not officially take over GPC until mid-May.
"I started out going to various meetings with her," Arnott said. "We had a lot of one-on-one talks as well before I ran the May General Assembly."
The biggest goal Arnott and her fellow council members set for the upcoming year is to make the career services position self-sustainable. They also wish to improve the community as well. Throughout the year, GPC will host events that provide networking, social and educational opportunities.
Arnott said GPC hopes to partner with the Missouri Students Association to bring the student governments together.
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