Chickens and goats found a temporary home on the Tommie Smith and John Carlos lawn on Tuesday.
The Career Center held a carnival-themed event aiming to make its services and connections with other companies known to San Jose State students.
According to its webpage, the Career Center is an organization that initiates campus efforts to prepare students for life after college and helps ensure lifelong career success.
The event had a petting zoo, carnival games and various snack stations.
On-campus organizations such as the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library and SJSU Cares had booths at the carnival.
Cung Sin Mawi, engineering junior and transfer student, said she found out about the event through Instagram and also said the carnival helped her familiarize herself with what SJSU has to offer.
“I learned a little bit more about it, like what is [being offered] in the campus,” Mawi said. “I just went to SJSU Cares and they have a CalFresh food plan that’s basically helping SJSU students, so I think it’s really helpful.”
The CalFresh food plan provides monthly food benefits to low-income families according to its website.
Additionally, rental-car company Enterprise and bowling corporation Bowlero had booths at the event where students were able to find out about a variety of jobs these companies offer.
Bobbi Makani, executive director of the Career Center said while companies like Enterprise might seem solely rental and sale focused, there are still opportunities for SJSU students in lesser-known roles.
“They’re not just a rental company, they hire a lot of different types of [people]. They also need computer science people, they also need people who work in IT,” Makani said.
Career promotions success specialist Trisha Gilges said the carnival is a way to increase the Career Center’s approachability.
She also said this was the largest Career Center carnival event she’s been a part of, doubling the number of booths it had last year.
“In the past we’ve had anywhere from 900 to 1,100 students,” Gilges said. “This is one of the biggest events that we throw.”
Makani said incorporating other campus departments in the event is mutually beneficial for students and the different organizations.
She also said taking into account student feedback was an integral part of this year’s planning.
“So [students] give us some input and then we also learn from the surveys that we get from students,” Makani said. “We ask them how else we can improve and we literally go through those [responses]. It’s an exercise that we do because we want to make sure that we are launching all of our events to serve students’ needs, because otherwise why would we be here.”
She added that students often push off their interaction with the Career Center until closer to graduation.
“Students don’t really think of the Career Center until they’re in their senior year,” Makani said. “ ‘We’re graduating, [and] I don’t have a job. Can you help me?’ Yes we can, but what we want to do is try to pace students so from the time you enroll at San Jose State we’re already with you.”
Education freshman Kayla Meza said she enjoyed having the option to become acquainted with an array of SJSU programs.
Meza also said she’s glad there is academic support offered on campus.
“There are a lot of resources, especially for tutoring,” Meza said. “I am very interested in that. I do struggle sometimes in math and English and there’s a lot of programs that are offering to help.”
