St. Scholastica hosts successful healthcare career fair for students

Earlier this month, The College of St. Scholastica hosted the Saints Health and Human Services Career Fair in the Benedictine Commons on the Duluth main campus. The career fair featured 35 employer booths, drawing a record turnout of students interested in career, internship, and graduate school opportunities in the healthcare sector. The event also offered valuable networking opportunities for students and insight into real-world career paths.

Many employers emphasized that St. Scholastica students stood out for being well-prepared, articulate, and mission-driven. “We heard from many employers and students who shared how positive their experience was at the event,” said Mary Anderson, director of Career Services. She added that employers “expressed appreciation for the strong student turnout, the excellent preparation of our participants, and the warm hospitality they always experience on our campus.”

Anderson noted that the career fair encompasses all aspects of healthcare, having recently expanded to include human services as well. As such, there were 35 various organizations at the fair:

• Hospitals, including Essentia Health, Aspirus St. Luke’s, and Mayo Clinic
• Human service organizations, including Northwood Children’s Home, Human Development Center, and Caravel Autism Health
• Graduate schools, including St. Scholastica Graduate Admissions, Mitchell Hamline School of Law, and the UW-Madison School of Pharmacy

Opportunities and connections for students

Tender Loving Care was among the 35 employer booths at the career fair. “One of the main things that [I’m] trying to do is simply get brand awareness in healthcare, because there are a lot of students who are not from the area and have no idea what TLC or the kind of services that we’re doing,” shared Keven Johnson, who was running the TLC booth. Johnson noted that the College and its students are a great fit for his organization: “They have a robust program in social work, psychology, and nursing, and those are the top three majors that I’m interested in recruiting from because those majors will find the most benefits in this work and would frankly be the kind of ethos that I want for serving my organization.”

Essentia Health was another popular table at the career fair. Three recruiters – Andrea, Catherine, and Kara – explained how specialized career fairs are helpful for recruitment: “There’s some complexities to applying to some of our part-time jobs opportunities and so the chance to actually explain them in person, to be able to translate and help people, guide people to what opportunity might be the best fit for them based on their unique circumstances is really nice thing to be able to do and just be able to make a more personal touch and connection.” The trio emphasized that Saints stand out to them because of the clinical preparation and capstone experience.

Just a few tables down from Essentia Health was Mayo Clinic. “People in Minnesota and surrounding areas have heard of us for sure, but when we go outside, not everyone is familiar with what Mayo is and what we have to offer. I feel like we have a lot of different opportunities that other places have, such as residency programs and things like that, so that helps to recruit new grads for different things that we have to offer for people who are just graduating,” shared a recruiter and nurse from Mayo Clinic.

Networking with organizations

Mayo Clinic’s table caught the attention of Rutendo Kahari ’26, a biochemistry major on the pre-medicine track. An exceptional student, Kahari recently discovered that she’ll be able to graduate early and has her sights set on Mayo Clinic. “I want Mayo Clinic because it’s the top hospital, and also I’ve had several affiliations with them prior to this experience through this program called Innovation Scholars, where we’re coming up with commercialization strategies for some of the ventures that are happening at Mayo Clinic. Last year, I took a class called Bacteria Page Discovery. So we had to go down to Mayo to use their fancy microscopes to visualize some of the viruses that we had isolated.”

Communications major Salma El Hamdani ’27 attended the career fair in the hopes of networking with organizations offering summer internships in communications and marketing. El Hamdani is very interested in film, and although the career fair mainly featured healthcare and human resources, she noted that it was still valuable to connect with these employers and explore opportunities within their organization. Similarly, Business Management major Gabby Eckman ’26 attended the career fair to make connections. Initially, she did not realize it was a healthcare-focused event but still found value in networking with different organizations.

Building the future of healthcare

The Saints Health and Human Services Career Fair provided students with opportunities to connect with various organizations, and employers who attended were able to raise awareness about their organizations and recruit eager students. As this event continues to grow, the St. Scholastica community looks forward to next year’s career fair and the possibilities that await future Saints.