By Princess Jones
Trevecca student workers milled around, in search of someone to shake hands with.
Some confidently smiled and introduced themselves to someone, others looked around nervously trying to build up the courage to approach a representative of a Nashville company.
The exercise, one of many to increase the professionalism of Trevecca students, was part of the first iWork All Employee meeting of the semester last week.
iWork, the university’s student worker program, allows students to work on or off campus to earn money or apply credit to their account.
The meetings, which happen once a semester, are designed to give students the skills they need in the workplace.
“One of my outcomes is that they will know how to do a handshake, so I hope if nothing else that they know how to do a proper handshake at the end of this,” said Nichole Hubbs, coordinator of career services.
Trevecca officials invited employees from different companies for students to interact with. Trevecca partnered with Parking Management Company, Gaylord Entertainment, and Fedex.
The meeting was more interactive than others, students said.
“It was different than rest of the meetings, usually we just sit there and listen to a speech. But this one we actually interacted with people, giving handshakes and introducing ourselves to people from different companies. It made the meeting fun,” said Justice Jordan, junior at Trevecca.
The meetings themselves are part of the plan to give students real world work experience.
“When you are an employee at any other company on campus or off campus you’ll be involved in staff meetings. You’ll have to go to meetings where you’ll learn about what’s happening in the organization, a meeting that shares announcement, and a meeting that somebody comes an presents some type of training on. So yeah this mimics a professional environment,” said Hubbs.
There will be more meetings in the future for participants of the iWork program. Through these meetings, the faculty hope that students will be prepared for life after graduation
“A student might go to work for these big corporations and they’re going to have an expectation that when they call a meeting that their employees come. That you’re there and that you’re invested. It’s setting you up for the real world,” said Ryan Jolley, Coordinator of student employment and the iWork program.
