Southern Utah University’s Career Center hosted a Public Lands Employment Day Career Fair in the Sharwan Smith Student Center Ballroom on Thursday, Feb. 19. Several public lands including the Parashant, Pipe Spring and Cedar Breaks National Monuments had booths at the fair to speak with students and recent graduates about employment opportunities.
Other businesses and organizations were also in attendance. These included SUU’s Intergovernmental Internship Cooperative, an organization which helps SUU students find outdoors-related internships, and the Utah Division of Outdoor Recreation who was seeking employees for trail crews.
“A lot of people think our career fairs are just meant for people that are graduating,” said Bobby Hodge, the Career Center’s Events and Marketing Coordinator. “But the nice thing about this is that it really is for everybody to come and network — to come and see what these companies have to offer. There are lots of different companies here hiring for lots of different positions, so it’s really for all students.”
McKay Hill, a current SUU student, enjoys attending career fairs like this one to explore his possibilities for future employment.
“They’re great opportunities to see who’s hiring,” he said, “and ultimately to see if there’s any potential jobs that can help me with my career, or internships as well to excel my career and put me in a good spot for the future. This public lands-specific career fair is just something different to explore — something I hadn’t even thought of before.”
On Jan. 20, President Donald Trump enacted a hiring freeze for most federal employment positions, preventing agencies like National Parks and Monuments from hiring new personnel to fill seasonal and career positions.
This hiring freeze is set to continue until April while the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Personnel Management and the Department of Government Efficiency finish preparing their collaborative plan to permanently reduce the size of the federal workforce. However, public lands agencies will soon be allowed to hire specific positions under exemptions.
“We do have a lot of (public land agencies) here that are still looking for students, so I encourage everybody to just come check it out and see who is hiring,” Hodges said.
The SUU Career Center hosts career and internship fairs a few times per year, each one with a different focus. Students interested in attending these fairs or learning about the Center’s other resources can go to their website and follow their Instagram.
Author: Emily Walters
Photos by Anna Mower
Editor: Heather Turner
life@suunews.net
