Step right up for the Freeman Center’s Career Carnival

A myriad of booths were scattered around the quad the Thursday before Thanksgiving each with a goal in mind: involving PCC students in engaging activities and discussions that would guide them in their career paths and connect them to career-related opportunities.

On November 21, the Freeman Center hosted its inaugural Career Carnival, a themed event complete with games, prizes, and a variety of opportunities to meet Freeman Center staff, representatives from PCC’s Career Communities Departments, as well as Shatford Library staff and representatives from student organizations. It was funded by the Economic Workforce Development (EWD) division at Pasadena City College, according to Jacqueline Sacoto, Director of the Freeman Center. The Career Carnival was an idea that stemmed out of a desire to celebrate National Career Development month, which is the month of November.

“This is our very first time offering a career carnival for students,” Sacoto said. “Our goal is to be able to offer this annually, every November, as we increase awareness of the career development process for our students and help to demystify that career is a very complex experience for our community college students, and that the Career Center is here to support them every step of the way.”

The Freeman Center’s carnival games consisted of a ring toss, a tic-tac-toe game in which participants threw Wiffle balls onto a board in hopes to land three in a row, a “fish bowl” game that involved landing miniature Wiffle balls into fishbowls, as well as a game where participants aimed to knock over a stack of six cans.

“It was crazy because I was taking a class in the building next to the R building,” PCC Student Charles Zhang said. “I just heard the music like bursting through the wall. My professor was like, what was happening outside? I was curious too. So after class, I just came down trying to check it out.”

Planning for the event entailed a different subcommittee that focused on the student experience, ensuring that there were career resources readily available for students as they enjoyed the games.

“I’ve been to the Fire Tech booth because I know they’re new,” Zhang continued. “I think they opened this year or last year, it was pretty new. And they provide firefighter-like physical training as well. And they can offer you some kind of stationary jobs over at the forest or just the City firefighters, so it’s pretty good.”

Staff from the Freeman Center spoke to students before playing the games, advising them to stop by for career support if needed.

“Know that you’re not alone,” Adjunct Career Counselor Sonya Gozumian said. “Know that it’s normal, and that’s what the Freeman Career Center is here for on campus to help students get support. And thinking about those things like, that’s literally why the Career Center is there, yeah, to support students.”

Visitors could earn a ticket when stopping at a booth. Each booth—whether a Freeman Center game, career community, club or organization booth—allowed students to interact with people looking to inspire them to find career options they gravitate towards. The tickets were exchanged for prizes, varying from a bag of cheese-flavored popcorn, a caramel apple, a bag of cotton candy, a tote bag, a stress ball, a Career Carnival t-shirt, or a Career Carnival sticker.

“The inspiration for my game is for students to think about different ways that they can grow in their career,” says Isabel Ochoa, an Internship Developer. “Be that, how do I get started? How do I get a different opportunity, maybe the same career, but a different industry, and also think about how we can support them in that process at the Career Center.”

One booth allowed for students to consider their futures through creating vision boards. After creating a career vision board, students answered prompts and questions to guide them.

The goal of the activity was for students to reflect on their interests and their goals at PCC.

“Having a visual can help students, and breaking things down into short term and long term goals is also really helpful,” Adjunct Career Counselor Sonya Gozumian said. “So it’s just giving them a chance to think about that.”

The six Career Communities of PCC—Arts, Communication & Design, STEM, Social & Behavioral Sciences, Liberal Arts, Health Science & Wellness, and Business & Industry—had booths established with representatives ready to answer questions about careers, majors, and areas of study.

Noel Gonzales, a Freeman Center Internship Director, shared that the idea occurred to staff during a meeting. “We were looking to celebrate First Gen Week, Career Development Month, so one of our career counselors, Shelby McIntyre, brought up the idea…we should maybe celebrate Career Development Month.” This event, Gonzales said, took about five weeks to plan. He added that the team at the Freeman Center collaborated on the concept of a carnival event, hoping to make the search for career information less intimidating and more fun, allowing them to have “a fun atmosphere while they’re here at PCC.” He also said, “I think that what inspired the carnival was to have our college campus and students the importance of careers, and the importance of Career Development Month by doing a fun carnival theme…gets them to show interest and come and learn about the support programs that PCC has here, relating to career, whether that be through student clubs, campus programs such as our Fire Technology Program, our Electronic Technology Program, you know, our Career Communities…”

There was also importance, he shared, in getting students to understand what a Career Community is. Gonzales defined a Career Community as a placement dependent on a student’s major, explaining that different majors fit under different Career Communities. “If you’re a STEM major– in biology, engineering, the natural sciences, or the chemical sciences– you’ll be in our STEM Career Community,” he gave as an example.

Gonzales, who was an attendant at one of the two prize booths, commented that the most popular prize choice at the prize booth was the power bank, while the second was the candy apple.

Support of career community faculty leads, who helped bring faculty to the event to promote different academic programs, as well as student life. And with all the positive feedback, the possibility of Career Carnival becoming annual has skyrocketed.

“I think it’s going to exceed expectations in terms of the feedback,” Sacoto said. “Because I’m already getting student feedback where they’re sharing emails with me expressing their gratitude for us providing this opportunity to them.”