Students find opportunities at second annual ASU Humanities Career Fair
Tim Day teaches film classes at Texas Tech University and enjoys a devoted following on his movie blog. Jennifer Green makes life-changing decisions for Valley families every day as a Maricopa County Superior Court Judge. Andrew Hedlund has a Wall Street office in New York City and is a bankruptcy reporter for a national publication.
All three are graduates of Arizona State University and hold various degrees in the humanities division of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) – the largest college at ASU. They are also proof that the humanities and job employment can by synonymous.
“Humanities students are highly sought out by employers because they have highly developed skills in critical thinking, communication and working in diverse settings," said George Justice, dean of humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and associate vice president for humanities and arts in the Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development. "Moreover, humanities students have become essentially entrepreneurial, applying their imagination and intellectual passion to the great works of human culture and great themes of the human experience. They transform the world that they enter.”
“Many of our society's leaders, in industry, government, culture and even technology have majored in the humanities. A humanities education is never the end; it is always the beginning,” he added.
On Tuesday, March 3, CLAS will host the second annual Humanities Career Fair at ASU’s Memorial Union (MU 221) on the Tempe campus. The event will run from 1 to 4 p.m. and will offer humanities students the opportunity to meet face-to-face with prospective employers and internship providers in non-profit, corporate, governmental, small business and privately-run organizations.
Past participating employers and internship providers have included Arizona Capitol Museum; Arizona Department of Education; City of Phoenix; GEICO; Govig & Associates; Green Living Magazine; Office of the Attorney General; Peace Corps; South Mountain Community College; Teach For America; Yelp Inc.; and more.
More than 3,000 students major in humanities disciplines at ASU and are trained as writers, communicators and creative problem-solvers. Many have also developed foreign language skills, international awareness and cultural competencies. They are eager to join workplaces that value the knowledge and skills they have acquired.
“I read a lot of complex material and I have to dig down deep through a lot of minutiae to be able to tell a story,” said Hedlund, who graduated in 2012 from ASU with a bachelors of arts in English. “A lot of what I was required to do and read in my humanities studies enhanced my critical and comprehensive thinking in the job I do today. I’m very thankful to ASU for giving me those tools.”
The Arizona State University Humanities Career Fair is jointly presented by humanities units in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at ASU; the Department of English; the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies; the College of International Cultures; and ASU Career Services.