Corporate Networking

Establish networks, meet industry executives, test your leadership skills, and develop a portfolio. Smeal assists students with corporate networking and placement activities through a variety of corporate events, leadership meetings, and internships that are sponsored by leading companies.

On Site Visitation

Visit companies to experience the functions of business in action and realize that your business education is essential in the corporate world. This program will assist you with understanding choices of majors and career selection. A two-day visitation program provides a full-day shadowing experience as well as opportunities to meet with corporate representatives.

Professional Development Seminars

Corporate representatives interact with first-year through senior-year diversity students in a relaxed environment, teaching business-applicable skills and valuable corporate techniques. Events provide a forum for open discussions and relationship building. Topics of interest include dining etiquette, corporate networking, communication enhancement, and addressing the challenges that diversity students face.

T-shirt and Jeans Informal Sessions

Corporate recruiters showcase their companies and interact with first-year as well as senior-year diversity students in a relaxed and casual environment that sparks open conversations. The event features topics such as internships, employment, and what it’s like within the corporate environment.

Striving Towards Awareness and Respect for Tomorrow (START)

This one-day conference, organized by Smeal students, is help each spring on Penn State’s University Park campus and provides a forum for a diverse multicultural group to discuss diversity issues in the workplace.

At START, corporate representatives have the opportunity to hear the issues and concerns of students and to brainstorm with them about ways to enhance their company’s diversity initiatives. Workshops such as “The Business Case for Diversity” by IBM and “Generational Differences in the Workplace” by Boeing were highlighted at a recent conference.

Internships

An internship is a great way for you to “try out” your major and gain insight into the corporate world for one semester, including summer. The internship program at Smeal has successfully matched thousands of students with companies seeking interns. The internship program works with more than 400 employers, placing interns with companies in more than twenty-three states and abroad. Companies are turning to internships as a way to entice well-educated, highly skilled students like you to work for them after graduation. You can earn money and credit, while increasing your marketability for your permanent job search.