Offering attractive signing bonuses and competitive wages, 58 school district representatives from across the South recruited future teachers from Southern University at The College of Education Semi-Annual Job Fair.
“I think the job fair is a good opportunity for students that are education majors to be informed on the options available to them,” said Karmease Landry, a communication disorders graduate student from Baton Rouge.
Recruiters from Louisiana made an extra effort to convince education majors to stay in the state.
According to Gussie Trahan, director of the job fair, only about 50 percent of the teachers that graduate from SU stay in Louisiana. Others relocate to school districts in Houston, Dallas and Atlanta. “Aspiring teachers may leave because of competitive salaries and because many of these school districts offer to pay for their relocation,” Trahan said.
Dottie Bell, a member of the SU Board of Supervisors and recruiter for the Caddo Parish School System said that although she receives offers from other universities, SU is the only place she would go to recruit for Caddo Parish.
“Students here know how to interview professionally and are well prepared for the job of being a magnificent educator,” Bell said. To make the fair more accessible to more students, SU, Louisiana State University, Orleans Parish Schools and Southeastern Louisiana University holds its teacher job fairs during the same week so if a student happens to miss the fair at one location; he or she can meet the same recruiters elsewhere.
“I had the opportunity to talk with several students who were ideal for our school district. The students here today presented very well and were focused on job possibilities,” said Al Bouie, a recruiter from the Valusia County School District in Daytona, Fla.
Since the late 1970s, the job fair has been held at SU twice a year during the fall and spring semester. The next job fair is scheduled for March 30, 2004.
