A Friday career fair at North Little Rock’s Shorter College, one of Arkansas’ historically Black colleges, gave students perspectives into professional opportunities their educations could unlock.
The fair paralleled support services that historically Black colleges provide to their students, who face unique challenges in the job market. Shorter’s biggest academic program is entrepreneurial studies, illustrating students’ economic interests. Their business projects have included barbershops, nonprofits, food trucks and clothing boutiques.
“It’s a little bit across the board,” Kelly Huskey, the college’s director of career services, said. “Whatever they’re trying to do, we’re trying to help them get what they need.”
Shorter also emphasizes support for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students so that they can work through the barriers to gainful employment they face.
Huskey said that the two-year private college has around 200 students enrolled on campus alongside 400 incarcerated students enrolled through the federal Second Chance Pell program, which helps incarcerated people consolidate post-secondary education loans and provides enrollment in education and training programs.
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