This year, Corban Career Day saw the largest student and community participation in its now ten-year history. What began as Assistant Professor of Business and Marketing Kelli Gassman’s idea to get a handful of her business students some practical mock interviewing experience has grown to become a campus-wide event. “I never would’ve imagined ten years ago when I started doing interviews for business students that we would be this large,” Gassman says. “I think the impact of a day like this is giving students the footing they need to go over that bridge from a school setting to their professional lives.”

The event had full support from University leadership with the day’s classes canceled and every student from every major encouraged to participate in activities ranging from mock interviews to career workshops running all day, a full career fair of more than 50 employers in the CE Jeffers Sports Center, and even a free professional head shot station. “I’m so thankful for our over 150 community partners that were here on campus investing in our students and helping to prepare the professionals of the next generation,” Gassman says.

Of the 150 community partners and 77 interviewers, representing a wide variety of industries and career professions, many were alumni who can recall their own experiences with Corban Career Day. Hope Koch, a 2022 graduate of the Hoff School of Business, who now works with Knife River Corporation, remembers a very different event from this year’s iteration. “It makes my heart so happy to come back here today and see how much this event has grown,” Koch says. “All the professors are involved, students from so many different majors, and we have taken Corban over for the day. It’s great to be able to share my knowledge with these students and help them further stand out when they go to apply for future jobs.”

It was a recurring theme throughout the day, the transmission of knowledge from one generation to the next. Students like Emanuel Muange, a senior accounting major, were able to gather invaluable experience from their interviews. “I was able to glean from my interviewer that, while I might have a good interviewing presence, I have a very weak resume currently,” he says. “I had some formatting problems that needed to be fixed and she helped me to get that situated and understand my weaknesses.”

The inclusion of so many new majors to the event clearly paid dividends for Corban students. “There have been so many amazing stories from this day,” says Assistant Professor of Media Arts, Naomi Yanike. “Students have been making important network connections. I’ve had students come away with paid working opportunities from their mock interview, and these interviewers are giving such incredible feedback that is helping our students to learn and grow.”

And the event didn’t just benefit Corban students. Employers and area professionals expressed an overwhelming desire to see the event continue to grow, and to return next year. Joseph Foster of Alta Marketing summed up the sentiment saying, “If you are a local employer looking for the right people for your business, down-to-earth, hardworking students who are looking for jobs, I would 100 percent recommend getting involved in Corban Career Day for next year.”

With ten years of Corban Career Day in the books, Kelli Gassman, who now also serves as Director of Career Services, can’t believe how far it has come, but she is excited to see what the next ten years of growth might hold for the University and the students and community it serves.