by Caleb Fort
Daily Lobo
UNM is an appealing place to recruit teachers because of its diverse student body, Dave Jarvis said.
"In our Highline School District, which is right outside of Seattle, we have 65 different languages spoken," he said. "So we need a number of staff members who represent the population that we serve."
Jarvis, who is the executive director of human resources for Washington State's Highline Public Schools, was at the UNM Educator's Job Fair on Thursday trying to recruit seniors majoring in education to teach in his school district.
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Mary Monta§o, employer relations manager for UNM's Career Services, said the fair is meant to be a service to students and teachers.
"Given the state of the job market in education, teachers are highly, highly recruited, and our students are very well-prepared," she said. "So we do it to help the employers identify good teacher candidates for their school, and really we do it for our students - so they can look at the options for employment after graduation."
Recruiters from 58 school districts across the country set up booths in the SUB. They were recruiting kindergarten through high school teachers.
Monta§o said about 330 students came to last year's fair and expected about the same number this year.
Student Ryan Nelson said the job fair was a good idea.
"It gives you a lot of openings. You don't have to go to a lot of different places," he said. "They are all right here, so you don't have to run around everywhere."
He was not counting on getting a job at the fair, although it would be nice, but wanted to get to know about different school districts, he said.
Pat Gaffney, principal at Maggie M. Cordova Elementary School in Rio Rancho, said he hired eight people from the fair last year and hoped to hire more this year.
"To get eight people out of one university is pretty good," he said.
UNM is ideal because it is close to Rio Rancho, he said. Teachers hired from the University will not have to move far, if at all, he said.
Many teaching graduates of UNM also have an English as a Second Language endorsement, which is a big perk, he said.
"In Rio Rancho, we'd love to have every teacher have that," he said. "Many of our schools are minority-majority students, and we want to be able to meet the kids' needs as much as we can."
Brian Rosson, director of human resources for Ector County Independent Schools in Texas, said he liked the fair. However, he said he would like student teachers to get half the day off, so they'd be able to come to the fair earlier than 4 p.m.
"We're looking to maximize our time here. We could see all 300 students in a few hours, rather than making it take all day," he said. "But overall, it's good. There are just some things that could be made better."
He said his school will probably be back next year.
Trenna Espinosa, a UNM student looking for an elementary teaching job, said she liked the fair.
"I think that it's set up to do exactly what it needs to do," she said. "It serves its purpose. It gives people the chance to meet with states and schools they want to go to. That's great - there's no other place you'll be able to talk to 12 different schools."
