Nearly 75 students attended the largest career fair to date at Averett University this February.

From criminal justice to tourism and everything in between, the University played host to 40 prospective employers from Virginia, North Carolina and the Washington, D.C. area in Carrington Gym.

Overall, Career Competitiveness Director Angie McAdams and Coordinator Ryan Taube said the career fair was a huge success.

“We had in attendance potential employers in criminal justice, banking, manufacturing, communications and marketing, emergency services, water resources, human resources, human services, tourism and business in general,” Taube said. The career field with the most employers present were in criminal justice.

Junior Christopher Sabin attended the spring career fair to talk with a company about an internship he learned about from a professor. He is a computer science and computer information systems major with a minor in cybersecurity and project management.

“I decided to pursue this degree because there’s always money in IT. I grew up loving computers and enjoy working on them,” Sabin said. He is also a captain on the Averett e-sports team.

His dream is to open his own information technology consulting business and setup network systems for companies from startups to fortune 500s.

When thinking about the career fair, Sabin described it as eye-opening.

“It’s definitely made me more comfortable and more assertive of what I am looking for. The longer I listened, the more I learned what it is I want from the company,” Sabin said.

Following the conversation, Sabin provided the company his resume and said he would be emailing them during the summer.

Senor business major Ashley Ruelo attended the career fair to become more at ease with prospective employers.

“The career fair made me more comfortable to talk to others in different fields. It was good to talk to professionals even if it wasn’t a field I was going into,” Ruelo said. She is also minoring in Spanish, is an Averett Bonner Leader and has played her final year of soccer.

Ruelo noted she found many of the conversations with employers interesting. After graduation, she wants to start in a business marketing position to help a company with their marketing.

“I’m focused on fashion and their marketing, but I am open to starting in another business to get my career going,” Ruelo said.

McAdams said there was a little something for everyone at the career fair beyond the freebies. She noted that career development at Averett is an important part of the conversation with students, and especially to have experience to put on a resume before graduating.

“For the sophomore and junior students, it’s important to have workplace experience. Part of Averett’s 2025 plan is to have them complete two workplace experiences before they graduate. For freshmen, it’s important for them to ask questions so they understand why they need to be prepared,” McAdams said.

And no matter the age of the graduate, whether 22 or 42, McAdams said it is important for all students to be prepared to enter their career of choice upon graduation.

“We have various workgroups going focusing on partnerships, and overall the goal of the University is to graduate students who are career ready. Research shows students who completed internships have a greater chance of landing that dream job, that higher caliber job right out of the gate. The goal of the University is to provide as much of that workplace experience as possible,” she said.

Averett’s School of Nursing’s students were also participating in a nursing career fair at Averett’s Riverview Campus at the same time. The nursing students had an opportunity to speak with prospective employers about employment and internships in a career field that is currently facing a severe shortage of workers.

Senior nursing student Allison Kelley said she was interested in speaking with various employers at the nursing career fair.

“One of the employers I spoke with was a representative from Duke Health. She and I talked about a connection I have with Duke and what I know about the residency program,” Kelley said.

Senior Kathryn McKinlee Shrader said the career fair was good for all.

“The career fair is an excellent opportunity for the sophomore, junior and senior nursing students to talk with employers. Representatives from quite a few health care organizations set up tables to provide information to eager students,” Shrader said.

Career readiness remains a focal point at Averett. By holding career fairs throughout the academic year, students get the opportunity to talk with prospective employers about future plans and find career paths to pursue after college. Averett remains committed to seeing students achieve job placement immediately after graduation.