KidsMatter Gears Up for Student Job Fair

Local high school and college students will have the chance to explore summer job options as well as hone valuable workplace skills next week during the KidsMatter annual Student Job Fair.

On Wednesday, March 21 the local youth empowerment organization plans on offering students age 16 to 23 a number of seasonal and summer job opportunities from local as well as national companies.

Students can talk face-to-face with business owners and representatives, learn skills like resume building and even apply for positions. KidsMatter executive director IdaLynn Wenhold is gearing up for this year’s event, which takes place from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at Merner Field House in the campus.

“It’s really an exciting evening filled with energy,” Wenhold said, who expects more than 1,500 attendees and 35 employers to participate. “KidsMatter role is not only to provide young people with job opportunities, but it’s also to give them the practical tools they need to help them make that first impression a strong one.”

KidsMatter has been holding the fair in Naperville since 2007, welcoming students from both DuPage and Will County. Although numbers dropped in 2009 and 2010 in terms of employers participating in the event, a recovering economy has built momentum for this year’s fair.

“We started to feel our momentum begin to grow last year and this year we are excited because we are up to 35 businesses and we usually have a few more come on at the last week,” Wenhold said.

Last year’s job fair attracted 32 employers with 2,500 different job opportunities.

Businesses on hand for this year include Bolingbrook Park District, , Culver’s, Chicagoland Pool Management and to name a few. There are also locally owned businesses participating in the event such as , located in downtown Naperville. 

“(Cookie Dough Creations) always hire, basically, their entire summer staff from this event,” Wenhold said.

Cookie Dough Creations owner Jim Bewersdorf said he is looking for a number of students to fill positions.

“We usually hire anywhere from about six to 10 kids a year,” Bewersdorf said. “We’ve hired around at least 250 high school kids throughout the years here.”

Some Cookie Dough Creations employees have even come back years later just to say “hi.” And Bewersdorf said with seasons changing quickly people have ice cream on their minds and the store is looking to hire as soon as possible.

“We need to start training right now,” he said. “We are under the gun right now to hire with the warm weather we’ve been having.”

Wenhold is especially encouraging college students to participate this year, as they will be offering mock interviews, internship opportunities and tips on social networking.

“I just love this event,” she said. “You can see our young people learning and growing and then feeling confident when they go for that job interview or opportunity. “