Adulting 101: Lebanon Valley College invites students, recent grads to all-day success expo

All classes on Lebanon Valley College's campus will be canceled on March 21, and instead students are invited to join the school's first-ever success expo, a combination of advisement, mentoring, an all-majors job fair and a wide array of workshops and presentations meant set youth up for success and self-reliance.

"We just asked the college campus to really focus on a day where really the entire programing for the day would be focused on post-graduation success," said Tomomi Horning, executive director of the Breen Center.

Students from graduating classes of the last five years have also been invited to the expo, both to show LVC's commitment to the success of their students post-graduation as well as an understanding of struggles recent graduates have had post-pandemic.

The event will run from 9 a.m. until around 4 p.m. with many workshops and presentations being held multiple times throughout the day.

This is the first year that an event like this is being held and was planned between the Breen Center for Career and Professional Development and the provost's office.

The day was initially intended to be a day in which students could meet with their academic advisers, but once the provost's office made the decision to cancel classes for the day, Horning, who began the job last summer, decided it would be the perfect time to hold the school's first ever all-majors job fair.

The goal in pitching the idea to the provost's office was to make it a high impact event for the community. From there, the idea mushroomed into a campuswide, all-day expo dedicated to student success and development.

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While the job fair is being held in the Arnold Sports Pavilion, workshops will be held all over the campus, with topics ranging from a discussion on credit cards, car loans and common sense investing, to a presentation on illegal interview questions, to a workshop on yoga and breathing techniques.

There will even be two presentations from one of the school's food vendors, Metz, on proper nutrition and meal prepping on a budget.

LVC students and recent grads will also be able to meet with alumni for drop-in career mentoring.

Horning described the entire event as Adulting 101, where the school is trying to equip its students with the tools and knowledge the need to make that next big step in life.

"I think it's really important that the broader community, society at large, recognizes that college is only one step of the process," Horning said. "There are lots of other ways to prepare our particular population of customers and clients for success."

"We're trying to give them access to services, like professional head shots so you build your LinkedIn profile and you have access to different types of professional development sessions which is not just focused on the academic side of things, but really just about you as an individual."

High school students welcome

High school students from all over central Pennsylvania have also been invited to the expo to experience a more curated and guided experience.

Students will be able to attend a selected number of presentations, workshops and panels to give prospective students both a taste of the kind of programming that LVC has to offer and some of the same professional development to help those who might not plan on college being their next step.

For those high school visitors, an emphasis will be put on presentations involving LVC student panels, allowing them to learn firsthand what a college experience is like.

"We want them to realize that we care about the whole person," Horning said, "not just the academic side of the person. We want them to get a sense of the type of support and type of resources made available to you at LVC, with an emphasis on a holistic picture of who people are, not just being a college student."

While not able to participate in it, high school students will be given a birds-eye-view of what a university hosted job fair looks like, and the opportunities that a college degree could grant them.

Part of the benefit in inviting high school students to the expo is that it strays from the standard college visit they are usually subjected to. Instead of being shown where the dorms and dining halls are, the expo shows them the kind of professional development and experience they should be able to experience at a college.

So far, only Lebanon School District and Annville-Cleona School District are sending students to visit the college.

Part of the reason, Horning, said was that schools struggled with transportation costs and logistics behind attending the event.

She hopes to have a broader reach among high school visitors for future expos.

High school students from other schools are still able to attend the expo with their families by signing up through the website, lvc.edu/visit/.

Daniel Larlham Jr. is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at DLarlham@LDNews.com or on Twitter @djlarlham

This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: Success expo: Lebanon Valley College invites students, recent grads