With spring graduation right around the corner, seniors gathered in the Clark Student Center Comanche Suite on March 6 to attend the one stop shop for all graduating seniors, Imagine Graduation.
Imagine Graduation coordinator, Kayla Brixey said she feels this semesters Imagine Graduation went better than last semester. The event will be hosted again on March 7 and Brixey hope more seniors attend.
“We’ve had a really good turn out so far, like very long lines of people,” Brixey said. “We’re expecting about 600 students and last time we had about 300 show up, but this time I’m thinking we’re going to be closer to our expecting number, if not more.”
With a few new aspects to the event, Brixey said she tried not to make too many differences from last semester’s event seeing as that’s what has worked for coordinators in the past.
“We just added a few different things,” Brixey said. “We put some games in here, a photo booth. Not a whole lot of differences because how it’s set up it works for us. We just wanted to make it a little bit more interactive for the students this semester.”
Sociology senior, Emily McDonald said she was happy with the event and embraced the perks of coming later in the day.
“I’m so happy I came late, because there’s no line,” McDonald said. “I think they’ve done a good job.”
The best stand at Imagine Graduation in McDonald’s opinion was for cap and gowns and said she feels positive for what’s to come.
McDonald said, “It’s the mark of graduation, all the other stuff they’re just trying to get me to buy things, but I feel good. I feel positive. I have an internship lined up afterwards, so I’m happy having some of that stress I had in the Fall, is gone now that I have my chickens put in a row.”
Stephanie Sullivan, assistant director for career management, encourages students to check out what the career management center table has to offer when they attend the event.
“At the career management center students can stop by here and have a professional headshot made for LinkedIn or other professional activities that they may need a photo for,” Sullivan said. “They are also able to learn about our services such as resume critique, mock interview, cover letter critique and our job search system called handshake.”
With a few changes from last semesters career management table at Imagine Graduation, Sullivan said she hopes to draw seniors in with a few new perks.
“Handshake is new because that’s our new job search tool,” Sullivan said, “Also this year if they have a headshot made the men get a tie and the women can have a scarf.”
English senior, Ashlee Fandrich feels the overall experience of Imagine Graduation was quick and painless.
“I think it was pretty quick and easy and everybody was really nice,” said Fandrich. “It was pretty painless.”
To make seniors aware of the event, Brixey focused on social media and email to informs the students about the event.
“We did social media shout outs and we also sent emails,” Brixey said. “We sent one out about three months before.”
Fandrich said hopes that next semester seniors will be more informed of how easy it is to attend, and believes this will draw more seniors in.
“I think more people might come if they just knew it was really easy,” Fandrich said.
For seniors who are anxious about attending Imagine Graduation, Brixey assures students there is no reason to be scared.
“Don’t be nervous, there’s nothing to be nervous about,” Brixey said. “This is more of a one stop shop where you can get everything taken care of, and you can order your ring, cap and gown and make sure that everything is on track. There’s nothing to be scared of. We have career management here and we can do headshots, which are great for your portfolios.”
Brixey assures there is no reason to stress if seniors are unable to attend the event.
“It’s not really a required thing, they can just contact us,” Brixey said. “If they have questions, they can contact the registar’s office. You can order your cap and gown from the bookstore, it’s just a little bit easier when you can come in and see everything.”
To gain more insight from the students, Brixey hopes to get opinions from the seniors who attended so they can improve next semesters event.
“What I’m hoping to do is maybe send out some questionnaires to the people who did attend and ask them what they would like to see in the future,” Brixey said.
