2012 YOUTH JOB FAIR
The Youth Job Fair scheduled for Saturday, January 21, 2012 co-sponsored by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Chapter of Blacks In Government, Prince George’s Community College, and Prince George’s One Stop Career Center was a success. The event was organized by the partners to assist the youth and young adults in developing the skills necessary to prepare them to compete for opportunities in the public and private sector.
Our idea or concept about the event is to give high school or college students an opportunity to experience the working environment within the federal government. We feel as employees of the agency that we have so much to offer and when the time comes for young adults to make decision on careers….our hope is they will think of federal employment. With a collaborated effort with colleagues within the agency, we devised workshops for students that participated in the fair. We also reached out to Federal agencies and the private sector to come to the job fair with employment opportunities.
Even with inclement weather, The Youth Job Fair attracted over 600 participants from a number of different schools in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. OPM BIG Chapter was so impressed with the ambition and professionalism of the students that we wanted to help any way we could to assist students with job opportunities our college aspirations. The Job Fair commenced with featured speaker Leutrell Osborne one of the first African American intelligence officers in the CIA. Mr. Osborne discussed his illustrious career as one of the first black pioneers in the CIA and conveyed the hard work he put forth to be an intelligence officer. His speech embodied what the young people needed to see and hear as they move forward to start their careers. This was followed up by our distinguished panel of OPM employees Corky Conyers, Bruce Stewart, and Malik Walker. The panelists were absolutely fantastic. They inspired and engaged the participants with insightful information on the obstacles and challenges of finding and pursuing a career.
Willie Robinson and April Davis utilized their talents to offer critiques and suggestions to students to improve their resumes. Corky Conyers conducted multiple workshops on USAJobs that enlightened parents and students on navigating USAJobs and the Federal application process. We could not have the success of this event without the tireless efforts of our volunteers. Sharon Ingram was instrumental in organizing our registration desk to allow over 600 participants to be registered in an orderly fashion. Our other volunteers, Janie Blanks, Dwayne Butler, Jerome Madlock, Shana Plummer, Monica Rheinhardt, Terri Coleman, and Michelle Boyd along with Ms. Ingram were extremely helpful with registration, adjusting schedules, providing regular updates and information, and offering encouragement to the many students that participated.
