On September 12, Dave Clark and Steve Summerlot, who both hold the position of Engineer IV, attended Purdue University’s Industrial Roundtable to provide students the opportunity to explore potential career opportunities with Citizens.
Clark, the Partnership in Excellence for Research and Learning (PERL) ambassador to Purdue, and Summerlot spoke to more than 100 students at the event, which is the largest student-run job fair in the nation. This year’s roundtable, the university’s 39th, welcomed representatives from more than 400 companies to campus.
“Participation in the roundtable was a natural fit as it relates to PERL’s goals,” Clark said. “It provided Purdue engineering and science students the opportunity to discuss in-state career opportunities with our organization, and it provided Citizens the opportunity to attract highly skilled talent with the potential to help provide solutions to our aging infrastructure challenges and fulfill our ongoing workforce needs.”
The majority of students Clark and Summerlot spoke to were looking for internship opportunities, so the event was an excellent forum in which to build awareness of Citizens’ internship program. Students were able to talk individually with Clark and Summerlot about Citizens, our mission and how they could apply the skills they are learning at Purdue for the benefit of the Trust.
The roundtable also served as a great brand-building opportunity for Citizens, as we were able to share the stage with Fortune 500 corporations and some of the most successful design and construction firms in operation.
Clark said, “I was ecstatic to hear from several students about their interest in Citizens as a result of their knowledge of, or familiarity with, our PERL program. They sought us out at this event, as they had participated, or are participating, in one of our project collaborations, or they knew of a student that had interned with us previously and had a good experience.”
Citizens’ success at Purdue’s Industrial Roundtable is just another testament to the strong relationship the PERL program and Clark have built with the university. Many more exciting collaborations with Purdue are on the horizon.
