By Benjamin Davis / The Jambar
The Andrews Student Recreation and Wellness Center held two career fairs Feb. 9 and Feb. 12 for Youngstown State University students to network with potential employers. Both events were organized by the Office of Career Exploration and Development and sponsored by university partners.
Sara Fugett, director of OCED, said the main purpose of these fairs was for students to meet and talk with employers in hopes that it would open the door for future opportunities.
“Basically, students are going to show up, they dress up for it, they bring resumes, they’re going to go around and talk to the employers, find out about their benefits and what opportunities are available, either jobs or internships,” Fugett said. “The end goal really is for the students to just have some conversations with the employers, and hopefully, it will result in something like an interview.”
The career fairs are in service to the career office’s broader goal of preparing students to enter the workforce and ensure they are career ready.
“Our purpose is to help students become career ready,” Fugett said. “It includes helping students find internships and maybe part time jobs so that they have experience when they hit the job market.”
The first event, titled 2026 Healthcare Fair, was open to students in medically related fields and sponsored by Mercy Health.
Gifty Antwi, who represented Mercy Health’s table at the fair, said the company has hospitals across the U.S.
“Mercy Health is a Catholic nonprofit hospital institution in Ohio, and we also have hospitals across the U.S.,” Antwi said. “We have ten markets — five of them in Ohio, five in our southern states.”
Antwi said Mercy Health has been a close partner with the university for the past several years and cited that a number of the company’s staff have studied and graduated from YSU.
“We have partnered with YSU over the last five years — YSU being a staple of our Youngstown community,” Antwi said. “We get a lot of our nurses from [YSU] students from here and most of our current staff members are YSU grads.”
One of Mercy Health’s primary benefits for students is their education assistance program. Under this program, Antwi said students in nursing or other medical fields can receive potential tuition assistance.
“We, within our education assistance program, have committed to YSU as one of our school partners that we will pay for any student within nursing or allied health, which includes but [is] not limited to lab, pharmacy … physical therapy, laboratory sciences and radiography and imaging,” Antwi said.
Following the healthcare fair, the Social Impact and Public Service Job and Internship Fair, sponsored by the U.S. Air Force Reserve, was held on Thursday for students in a variety of fields.
“It’s open to all majors, but typically the liberal arts, social work, criminal justice, education, communications — those are the majors that the employers are expecting more to see,” Fugett said.
Fugett said the theme of the fair centered around students, employers and organizations who want to make a difference in their area.
“The emphasis with this event is for students who are interested in careers that make a difference,” Fugett said. “Most of the organizations are nonprofit organizations.”
Air Force reservists out of the Youngstown Air Reserve Station hosted a table at the event. Staff Sgt. Marlena Marek said the Air Force can provide students with career opportunities that build their resumes.
“If you need something on your resume to boost up [the chance of] you getting hired, the military is always a great option,” Marek said. “Plus, we’re part time, so we’re not taking you away from any of your goals or opportunities that you have being 20 minutes up the road.”
Along with its part-time commitment, Marek said the reserve has opportunities for education payments and networking.
“We’re here pretty much to support you, whether that be for paying for education, maybe networking on base as well,” Marek said.
After the career fairs, Fugett said students in need of resources from OCED can visit the office locations in Jones Hall, Williamson Hall and Silvestri Hall.
“This is the primary office, and we’re obviously in Jones Hall, second floor. But the [Williamson College of Business Administration] has a career management center … that is in Williamson Hall. It’s Room 1115, first floor,” Fugett said. “The College of [Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics] has a professional services office, and they’re on the second floor of Silvestri Hall.”
OCED can also be contacted at 330-941-3515 or emailed at oced@ysu.edu.