By: Emma Gonzalez
Contributor
Many students gathered in Room 302 of the School of Business, to attend the National Association of Black Accountants on Sept. 15 for an internship application bootcamp.
According to the NABA organization website, NABA is a nonprofit membership organization which aims to advance business leaders in accounting, finance, business and entrepreneurship. They have 50 chapters across the United States – the university having one of them.
“I’ve been looking for higher opportunities,” business marketing major Chakour Biao, a senior, said. “I’m using the opportunities that are available to me here while still trying to secure ones that are outside of Southern.”
Students were able to receive help from NABA executive board members to polish and form resumes, as well as search for internships that are catered towards everyone.
The event was split into two different sections – the students who needed to finish up and polish resumes and the students who had resumes and were ready to apply to scholarships.
Biao said that he was one of students who had a resume.
“I can search and find things by myself, but who knows if there will be a personal opportunity that someone may have just from seeing what I’m doing,” Biao said.
The NABA executive board members were able to find 55 internships for students that varied in majors, such as business and marketing.
“I’m a first year and I just wanted to get a headstart on the internship and job application process,” business administration major Ilyas Ali, a freshman, said.
Many of the students in attendance needed to finish up and polish their resumes.
NABA executive board members helped each student by giving them tips on how to better their resumes, as well as answer any questions.
“One of the first things you need to do is have a resume and build it, so I wanted to start that,” Ali said.
When students were ready to browse internships, all the information was organized in a spreadsheet. They were able to access applications, deadlines, locations, various roles and the major or department it catered towards.
“We wanted to bring awareness that there are internships,” finance major Jessy Ebengo, a senior and NABA president, said.
Ebengo knew that students struggle with finding internships, in fact he had overheard many other students saying how difficult it is to get recruited.
“I wanted to figure out what it is the firms are looking for that students do not have; to which some recruiters mentioned that student resumes were not lined up with what they were looking for,” Ebengo said.
Throughout the event, Ebengo went around the room, offering to look at students’ resumes as well as making sure the students had all the internship information.
“In order for the members to have access to the internships, they need to have their resumes ready and well prepared,” Ebengo said, “so we added resume checkups to elevate the students professionally.”
During the event, Ebengo allowed students to familiarize themselves with each other.
“One of the reasons behind this is to build a community of people who can help each other,” Ebengo said.
Biao had a similar idea about the event, noting that networking is one step towards success.
“I think that especially with business out of all things, opportunities come with speaking and knowing people,” Biao said.
