IGNITE Job Fair

Published on Monday, March 18, 2024

Student Affairs always seeks to provide our students with the best services possible. One of the many events that Student Affairs handles within the School of Nursing (SON) is the IGNITE Fair. Dr. Farrah Evans, director of student affairs, has headed the event for the past eight years and has continuously worked to improve it.

Samantha Reeves, the education administrator for student affairs, ensures we have an adequate event space and a large variety of vendors to participate. After the event, she follows up with the students and vendors via a survey to ensure that the event benefits all parties as much as possible. Student Affairs also provides a graduate directory to all vendors participating in the fair. This allows them to reach out to new graduates who are seeking employment.

The SON held our IGNITE event for the Jackson Traditional BSN students at the Student Union on Wednesday, February 14th. While there may have been love in the air due to the Valentine’s Day holiday, there were also job opportunities. There were nineteen vendors from various types of health care organizations present, ready to discuss opportunities with our students.

Because IGNITE is such an important event, Student Affairs offers four fairs yearly. These events are held in both Jackson and Oxford for the Traditional BSN and Accelerated BSN programs.

IGNITE is an essential event for both our junior and senior BSN cohorts. The event provides seniors with information about nursing jobs, and juniors with details about available externships for hands-on experience. The relationships and experiences that our students can “ignite” at this event can open the door to a wide variety of job opportunities for those students beginning to close in on the end of their nursing education.

IGNITE is a tremendous benefit for our students and various medical facilities and companies across the state and some neighboring states. The IGNITE fair creates a relationship between our academic medical center and health care employers that benefits Mississippi’s health care as a whole. Just as there are a variety of needs across vendors, we offer a variety of students with different strengths, abilities and interests to meet those needs!

One of our junior students said that IGNITE was a beneficial event. She met with several vendors and, as a result, received six different interviews for an externship. She received multiple offers and has chosen an externship that fits her interests and goals. Several students also expressed an interest in furthering their nursing education at UMMC. We are happy to see our students thrive, and hosting these events helps them to do just that!