First-Ever CHER Career Fair Draws a Big Crowd

Salus University's Occupational Therapy (OT) and Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) students got a peek into their futures at the first-ever College of Health Sciences, Education and Rehabilitation (CHER) career fair held Nov. 6, 2023, at the Hafter Student Community Center gymnasium on the Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, campus.

The event included 24 businesses from the Philadelphia region and some that represented companies from across the nation.

For Kaylyn Lawson ‘24SLP, it was a chance to start looking for a job and at some prospective employers with whom she might start her career. “This is awesome. I haven’t heard of a lot of other schools having these kind of (career fair) opportunities for students,” said Lawson, who is also looking for a clinical fellowship position that all SLPs need upon gradation. “So I’m happy to get my foot in the door and be able to start the job search experience.”

Ryan Hollister, MS, director of the Bennett Career Services Center at Salus, said it was a chance for students to explore a group of companies in the same room at the same time. “It’s a great networking opportunity, even if they are a first-year students and they aren’t quite sure about jobs yet. A lot of these sites take our students in their second year for clinical rotations,” said Hollister. “We want the students to get a sense of what opportunities are out there and they’re plentiful. This is the place to come and find them.”

Hollister added that about 60 students had pre-registered for the event, although he thought attendance would be higher than that because both OT and SLP faculty were essential in promoting the career fair.

Brie Glover, clinical supervisor and chief operational officer for Village Care Family Services in Philadelphia, a community-based, non-profit, early intervention agency that works with children birth to school and their families to provide speech, OT and special instruction for preschool special education students. She said she was looking to connect with students who were excited to learn more about early intervention. "I think this is amazing. We have been in business for more than 20 years and we’ve been doing a lot of fairs like this. But sometimes they’re few and far between, hit or miss,” said Glover. “A lot of times they’re combined with other schools and businesses. So, you might not see a lot of discipline-specific folks come out like this.”

Madison DeLong ‘24OT is originally from Delaware, but wants to stay in the area after graduation, so she was looking for companies based in Montgomery and Chester counties in suburban Philadelphia. “I originally thought that I wanted to do pediatrics but then going into my adult and geriatrics semester, I did a field work rotation in a skilled nursing facility and now I’m torn. I think ultimately though, pediatrics is where I’m going to end up,” she said.

For Elizabeth Gaul ‘24OT, seeking out companies that have OT roles she may not previously have heard of was a central reason for her to attend the career fair. “I think this career fair is a good opportunity. I know in undergraduate we had a career fair, but not many people went to it,” said Gaul. “This is a better time because we’re starting to get closer to the end of our programs. This is a great time to build those connections. It’s getting very real. Each week we’re getting closer and closer to graduating.”