With the spring career fair behind us, no more career fairs will be held at St. Thomas this semester. But campus community members, particularly in the humanities departments, see a need for more focused fairs in the future.
Students in the college of arts & sciences — such as those taking courses in English, art history, theology and philosophy — say they have a harder time knowing what they want in a job, especially without focused career fairs as a tool.
The main fairs held at St. Thomas occur once in the fall and again in the spring. The Career Development Center has a master list of 400 to 600 diverse companies and employers. They match the career fair dates to recruitment cycles and try to bring in companies searching for multiple majors and students.
But even with the career development center’s commitment to diverse companies, many humanities students don’t find the fairs helpful.
Henry Iverson, a St. Thomas senior, started with a history major and later added a professional writing major to open up more opportunities. He skipped the 2026 spring career fair altogether, but has attended the government and nonprofit career fair at the University of Minnesota and the “Made in Germany” career fair at St. Thomas. The latter focused on internships and jobs from German-American companies located in the Twin Cities.
Iverson said that the German career fair included many engineering employers, but not many employers that were of interest to him. He said that majors such as engineering have obvious fields they go into; that, “in engineering, you’re going to be an engineer,” but that history and English don’t have “one career.”
Donna Bruinius is a senior majoring in civil engineering who said that she notices nuances in how engineering and humanities students learn. She said that engineers work in real-world applications and get work experience through their studies.
“I think engineers get the better resources compared to the liberal arts,” Bruinius said.
Engineering students have their own career fair called “Meet the Engineers.” This is a reverse career fair where students send their resumes to companies ahead of time, and the employers come up to them instead of the students going up to the employers.
“I do hope that my liberal arts friends are able to get more resources to find work, of course,” Bruinius said. “I think career fairs are great, but the format of MTE makes it way less intimidating.”
In addition to Meet the Engineers, St. Thomas hosts other major-specific career fairs, such as the entrepreneurship and real estate fairs.
Mark Sorenson-Wagner, the career development center director, said there is a world where a humanities career fair could happen.
Iverson suggested that more nonprofits be at St. Thomas’ career fair, and said a humanities-focused career fair would be a benefit. He said it is good to have career fairs related to specific majors so that students are not fishing for organizations that might be a good fit for them.
Ian Olynick, a senior majoring in theology and philosophy, agreed with Iverson. In an email to The Crest, he wrote that a humanities-focused career fair would benefit St. Thomas students and allow for representation of groups that have been “systematically underrepresented.”
“When I was pursuing a music business degree as a sophomore, I had attended the career fair, but (I didn’t have) much success there as there was little to do with both humanities and fine arts,” Olynick wrote. “Since then, I have not attended it due to their lack of inclusion of humanity-related fields and more of an emphasis on business, finance, etc.”
Even faculty find the idea of a humanities career fair beneficial. Art history department Chair Heather Shirey said that having one would focus on the specific skillset of humanities students.
“I think of it this way: for students in art history and visual culture, the skills they obtain — particularly critical thinking skills, writing skills, visual literacy and the ability to present specialized knowledge to a wide public in a dynamic manner — these skills are highly transferable to a variety of jobs,” Shirey wrote in an email to The Crest.
The Career Development Center aims to serve all students, regardless of major or whether they hope to work for-profit or nonprofit, volunteer or otherwise, Sorenson-Wagner said. But that doesn’t mean they can find what they want at the career fair.
Violeta Lara, associate director of career education, said that the career development center’s relationships with companies are strong but developing. This yields a variety of formats to engage with companies.
“I think that there’s a variety of employers that are not seeking out traditional, formatted career fairs,” Lara said.
Lara and Sorenson-Wagner suggested that students engage in networking in other ways, such as bringing employers to classrooms, attending club events or through tabling and information sessions. The career development center also partners with other colleges in the area, such as the University of Minnesota Government & Nonprofit Fair.
Bill Tolman, the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, voiced his uncertainty about a career fair being the most effective model without specific types of companies such as nonprofits making up the bulk of the tables.
“Perhaps the better approach is to invite alumni back who have navigated the job market successfully, or design such visits to ask them to talk about specific professions, such as humanities into law, or humanities into the non-profit sector, or humanities into government,” Tolman wrote in an email to The Crest.
Sorenson-Wagner expressed not wanting students to see the fair as “either I get something at the career fair or I’m toast,” and that the career development center is still recreating things, as the career fair is relatively new.
“It just might look different, and we might not have it perfect yet,” Sorenson-Wagner said. “But we’re certainly open to figuring out how to make sure you can navigate with as few barriers in place as possible.”
Bridget Schmid can be reached at schm1520@stthomas.edu.
