Vicky Sanchez is an interdisciplinary studies graduate who was offered two jobs during UTRGV’s Spring Teachers Job Expo. Sanchez ended up working as a teacher for the Corpus Christi Independent School District.
“They interviewed me on the spot,” she said. “The principal from the school that I’m working at, was recruiting there.”
On both the Edinburg and Brownsville campuses, there will be a Fall Teachers Expo that provides students a chance to meet dozens of school districts offering jobs.
The expo will be from 8 a.m. to noon Nov. 9 in El Gran Salón on the Brownsville campus and at the same time Nov. 10 in the Community Engagement and Student Success Building in Edinburg.
These Teachers Expos take place in the fall and spring semesters and started with a partnership between the College of Education and P-16 Integration and the UTRGV Career Center.
“We want to give students an opportunity to meet with these recruiters, and also give an opportunity to recruiters to meet with students who are actually ready to go into the job market,” said Juan Andres Rodriguez-Nieto, director of the UTRGV Career Center.
Rodriguez-Nieto said this event is unique because school districts send individuals who have the authority to make job offers.
“They come in, they interview the students, and they’ll give them a letter of intent, where the students will be invited to continue with their interviews,” he said.
The schools present at the expo are a combination of local institutions and some from outside the Rio Grande Valley.
While the focus of these expos are for education majors, Rodriguez-Nieto said there is value for students of other majors.
“For someone who might be exploring what they can do with their degree, it’s a good opportunity for them to find something for themselves,” he said. “The other thing is that, although many of these schools are looking for teachers, they will also be hiring for other positions, such as [human resources], accounting or business.”
Forty-three educational institutions will be present at the Brownsville expo and 44 at the Edinburg expo. The schools include IDEA Public Schools, LEAD Public Schools and others, such as the Austin and Dallas independent school districts.
Ronnie Garcia, the Career Center’s assistant director for employer relations, is coordinating the Fall Teachers Expo.
Garcia said all students who are interested in teaching should go even if they are not education majors.
“The teachers job expo is a great resource for [students] because they can get exposed to charter schools that do not require teachers’ certification, or they can get exposed to teachers’ certification programs,” he said.
Both Rodriguez-Nieto and Garcia said that students should dress appropriately and bring many copies of their résumés.
“I brought about 15 résumés, and I brought a map of Texas, because I knew there was going to be a lot of districts in places I wasn’t familiar with, and I brought a good attitude,” Sanchez said about the expo she attended last spring.
For more information, call Career Center at 665-2243 in Edinburg or 882-5627 in Brownsville.
