Students Build Industry Connections

Stop by Witherspoon Student Center, and you’ll find it bustling with students. Last Friday, a group of graduate students hosted their own Industry Fair, with representatives in attendance from eight local biotechnology companies. 

This year’s industry fair was co-hosted by the Genetics and Genomics Graduate Student Association and the Microbiology Graduate Student Association. A team of three graduate students, Rania Raftopoulou, Grace Fuller, and John Britt organized the event, building it back after a hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For Rania, the fair had a personal meaning as well, providing a way to build connections within the MBGSA and with other graduate students. She’s close to graduation and looking to pursue a career in industry, but found existing career fairs didn’t highly feature microbiology-focused companies. Microbiology as a discipline is spread broadly across campus with projects and labs spanning multiple campuses, colleges, and departments.

Rania and Grace both work in Rodolphe Barrangou’s CRISPR lab. They were able to leverage some of their lab’s existing industry contacts and alumni to connect with companies of interest. Grace, a Co-Industry Chair in the G3SA alongside John, organized the Industry Fair last year, before it became a collaboration between the two GSAs.

The students’ advice for others hoping to host similar events; “start organizing early and know that you can’t and shouldn’t do it all by yourself.”

This year’s event offered graduate students an opportunity to have one-on-one conversations with company representatives, several of whom were NC State alumni themselves. Company representatives were eager to connect with students, offering information about internships, job openings and how to structure resumes and other documents to showcase their skills.

A special thank you to the companies that attended the industry fair and took the time to connect and network with our students; Askbio, Azzur Labs, BASF, IDT, New England Biolabs, Novonesis, Pairwise and Verb Biotics.