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Jennifer Young, a junior business major and arts management certificate student at Sweet Briar, has been selected to represent the College on a statewide advisory council focusing on connecting private college students with top Virginia corporations to create internship and employment opportunities.

Young is serving on the Student Advisory Council for CAREER15, an innovative career development network for students enrolled at the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges’ 15 member colleges and universities. Each institution is represented on the Council by one student who was selected on the basis of academic achievement and leadership on campus.

CAREER15, launched by the VFIC last year and offered through the College’s career services office, was designed as a cost- and time-efficient way to connect Virginia’s private college students with potential employers. Students and companies connect through postings on a central Web site, www.career15.com, and through regional events that bring students and employers face to face. Currently, more than 70 corporations and roughly 2,000 students are participating.

Wayne Stark, Sweet Briar’s senior career services director, has been involved with the program since its beginnings. He is quick to point out that of those 2,000-plus student participants, about 107 are Sweet Briar women. Given the College’s size, that number ranks Sweet Briar at No. 2 among the 15 institutions for student participation.

Stark said his office tapped Young to represent Sweet Briar on the council based on her record of involvement. The representatives provide advice to the staff of CAREER15, and promote the program on their campuses, with the goal of increasing student participation in the placement program.

Young works closely with Stark and both of them led a delegation of SBC students and faculty to a CAREER15 Key Employer Panel at the Boar’s Head Inn in Charlottesville on Oct. 1. They met with representatives of SunTrust, Altria, Dominion Resources, BB&T and Verizon Wireless to learn more about employment opportunities with the Fortune 1000 companies.

According to Stark, both students and faculty had a chance to interact substantively with the employers during the event.

“I felt that the format was excellent. The panel, then discussions [and] networking that followed are similar to what we do at our field/major-specific career events,” he said, adding that one is coming up on Oct. 21 for students interested in government and international affairs careers. “I have folks coming from Homeland Security, CIA, State Department, etcetera.”

Although Young was selected to the council last May, her real work on campus is just beginning. Similarly, the organization itself is still getting established. It recently launched a reconstructed Web site that functions as a portal for students and potential employers to connect. Students also can post resumes and review job openings.

“Being that this is CAREER15’s kick-off year, my main job is marketing the program and the Web site to the Sweet Briar campus,” she said. “I would love to see all of Sweet Briar’s students signed up for CAREER15’s Web site."

Young said CAREER15 is beginning to get a lot of attention from large corporations, and as a business major, that prospect is exciting for the post-graduation job opportunities it opens up.