Career Services holds largest Student Etiquette Dinner

Career Services held their Student Etiquette Dinner on Feb 11. At 6 p.m. Career Services holds the dinner at least once every semester, but this was the biggest turn out they’ve had. The Student Etiquette Dinner helps to educate and prepare students on how to practice business etiquette in a professional setting, such as a business interview or a professional dinner. The dinner was served by Sodexo.   

“It’s an opportunity for students to get comfortable with professional dining with people that they don’t know,” said Mindy Cloninger, director of career services.  “More and more companies include a meal in interview situations.”  

The dinner, which was led by Cloninger, taught students important information about professional dining such as which utensils to use when, what to order, and when to eat.  

“Probably the greatest benefit is to go into an interview feeling far more comfortable, if something happens, this is what we often hear, a student say, ‘oh this happened during my interview I know what to do about that’,” Cloninger said.  

Some teachers required students to attend the Student Etiquette Dinner for class.  

“It was required by our senior projects, and I think that it was a good idea by the professors to encourage it, because we’re all hopefully one day going to be CEOs or upper-level, so we should know how to conduct ourselves around the current CEOs and upper-levels,” said Jonah Lies, senior in Construction Management. “I’d said it benefits me by preparing me for situations I’ve yet to be in, or could possibly find myself in.” 

Career Services holds the dinner once or twice each semester, but this event was the biggest they have held yet, with 170 students, as a result of the increasing number of teachers requiring the event for their course.  

“It was part of one of my classes, Business Professionalism, I thought I’d come to get the points, but I’m really liking it so far, it’s really nice,” said Dawson Merando, sophomore in accounting. 

Merado thought the event had many benefits to students. 

“It’s going to benefit me a lot, just since I’m going into business,” he said. “My boss might have a dinner with me, so if I know everything, he’s going to be looking at me a lot different. So, it’s going to be really good on my end.”  

The purpose of the Student Etiquette Dinner is to educate students in a fun and social way. 

“I think it’s great for them to meet some new people tonight, some students, they’ll see each other across campus and buildings, so it’s always good to expand your network a bit, it’s always a good thing,” Cloninger said. “We try to have some fun, so hopefully people will enjoy it, they learn about professional dining and hopefully they learn about career services and the services we can provide. We hope that, that benefits students in the long run and present themselves professionally and be the best candidate in an interview that they have.”