ERIANN BOONE
Staff Writer
Students were given an opportunity to learn more about working in the non-profit sector Thursday Jan. 12 with a round table event to compliment today’s non-profit career fair.
The fair, held today from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the Tyler Campus Center, is hosted by the Career Center and will feature various non-profit organizations.
The Pepperdine Career Center and Student Alumni Organization held one of a series of round tables in the Fireside Room.
The most recent round table hosted Pepperdine alumna Dr. Mara Taylor, who received his master’s in psychology in 2003, has created her own non-profit organization, Going Out by Going In, which educates convicted and at-risk individuals.
Her non-profit began to develop out of a program Taylor had started at the San Pedro Prison. This program teaches relaxation techniques to inmates.
“Most of the inmates at at-risk individuals really feel unsure about their future,” Taylor said.
In order to cater to this, she teaches breathing techniques as well as the anatomy of the brain and nerves to help the individuals learn how their emotions work and how to control them.
Taylor has expanded her program to Camp David Gonzales and students in eastern Los Angeles schools.
For Taylor, all of her work experience has been tied to helping the underdog, a theme in her life.
“We all have themes to our lives,” she said. “It’s a thread that follows you all your life.” For Taylor, this theme is helping the underdog.
“Nothing is more satisfying than a smiling face,” she said.
In her own life, Taylor used resources like professors and students to aid her in creating her own non-profit from scratch.
“If you don’t walk away from Pepperdine with a Rolodex full of contacts, then you haven’t fulfilled your education,” she said.
Taylor continued to encourage students to take advantage of any opportunity to speak with and obtain business cards from as many people as possible.
Pepperdine offers round table events, career fairs, and other opportunities to network with employers and alumni.
“Round tables are held between one and two times a month,” said Katrina Wills, events coordinator for the Career Center.
“Online registration and the complete schedule of Round Tables are on the Career Center Web site.”
The round-table discussions provide a setting that is “intimate and informal, allowing students to meet alumni from fields they want to enter or are thinking about entering and to develop real life insight of that field,” Wills said. “It directly serves students who are undeclared or unsure of the major they have chosen.”
“All career fairs are aimed to provide valuable access to the countless opportunities while in school and after graduation,” Wills said in an e-mail. “The non-profit fair serves to present local volunteer and internship opportunities along with national and international fulltime, paid positions for graduating seniors.”
Taylor’s organization will be represented, along with others such as the Boys & Girls Club of Malibu, the American Cancer Society, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association, and Relief International.
The Career Center holds job fairs four times a year. A spring career fair will be held March 30.
01-19-2006