Career Services increases focus on nonprofits

Last Friday, Career Services and the Princeton Social Entrepreneurship Initiative co-hosted a Nonprofit Career Fair and a panel featuring several nonprofit organizations to address the expanding campus interest in social entrepreneurship.

According to Director of Career Services Beverly Hamilton-Chandler, the fair consisted of 45 organizations representing a variety of sectors including government; the arts; sports; education; human rights and social justice; community advocacy; and health, cultural and environmental foundations.

In an email advertisement, Career Services said that the purpose of the fair was “to share information with students about current opportunities and the rewards and challenges of working the nonprofit field.”

Career Services adviser Abbey Racelis spent the past year trying to expand career opportunities for those considering working professionally in social entrepreneurship.

“We see many students who have aligned their career goals with Princeton’s informal motto ‘Princeton in the Nation’s Service and in the Service of All Nations,’ ” Hamilton-Chandler said in an email. “In the past year, we have seen an increased interest in entrepreneurial career options from students, and interest in social entrepreneurships has risen as part of that trend.”

Career Services’ initiative is reflective of growing student involvement in PSEI, a student organization founded three years ago by classmates who were inspired by related coursework. Many of these students took EGR 495: Special Topics in Entrepreneurship, which has seen an increase in enrollment in recent years, and others.

PSEI President Meg Partridge ’14 was inspired to join the group because of these courses’ lack of attention to the practical applications of the social entrepreneurship they studied. She realized that an organization such as PSEI would allow students to take their conversations about social entrepreneurship outside of the classroom.

“Interest in social entrepreneurship has become a growing movement on college campuses, and Princeton is no exception,” Partridge said. “Students are becoming increasingly excited about how they can change not only the business world, but also the nonprofit sphere.”

PSEI currently has approximately 200 students on its listserv and is running several initiatives over the course of this semester. Their projects include the launch of a multimedia campaign, a social track for the TigerLaunch startup competition, the publication of a “Social Entrepreneur’s Guide to Princeton” and an East Coast Start-Up Weekend at which students from other universities will be invited to Princeton for a series of workshops.

Partridge noted that the presence of start-ups in Boston and New York could make Princeton a hub for an East Coast social entrepreneurship.

Partridge said that the job opportunities that Career Services has made available to members of PSEI have formed much of the organization’s success.

“They’ve been working tirelessly to provide a diverse set of career and internship opportunities to students,” Partridge said. “I’m excited to continue working with them to move in this direction.”

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Career Services has also initiated the IMAGINE Speaker Series for entrepreneurship. At a recent event, Alex Salzman ’07 discussed Visionary, his start-up program which links investors to social entrepreneurial opportunities. Hamilton-Chandler said that Career Services is forming connections with employers in social entrepreneurship that include Ashoka, Acumen Fund and Echoing Green.

“We will continue to reach out to employers and alumni in the field to invite them to campus to share their experiences and opportunities with students,” Hamilton-Chandler said. “Given that there is a significant number of recent alumni who are currently in this industry, inviting those alumni back to share their career experiences and offer advice is an important way to highlight the different career options available in the field.”

Partridge said that the fair was a “really great start” in achieving PSEI’s goals involving exposure to career opportunities.

Hamilton-Chandler thought the event was successful, and noted that more than half of the attending employers were recruiting at Princeton for the first time.

“Feedback from the organizations indicated that they were very happy with the level of interest among students,” she said. “Representatives of organizations that have participated in the past noted that the students they met this year were able to have even more productive conversations about specific opportunities because they were better prepared and they had already researched the organization’s individual mission, goals and careers within the sector.”

But some students who attended said they were not satisfied with the breadth of fields at the fair.

“I was, overall, disappointed,” Gabrielius Banevicius ’15 said. “There were a good number of organizations there, but nothing that I was looking for. They could have had a little more.”

Naomi Lee ’15 said that that while the fair was “informative, there could have been more variation.”

Nonetheless, Hamilton-Chandler said Career Services is committed to continuing to hold events for students interested in social entrepreneurship and nonprofits.

“We have had many discussions with students who are looking for ways to be social change-makers, and we provide information and advice to help them pursue those interests,” Hamilton-Chandler said. “Social entrepreneurship is yet another excellent path that students can explore as they define their engagement in the world.”