NTID hosts job fair Oct. 10

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Mark Benjamin, RIT/NTID

Hundreds of RIT/NTID students attended last year’s NTID Job Fair.

Following a year in which 93 percent of its graduates found employment, the National Technical Institute for the Deaf will stage its 13^th annual job fair.

NTID, one of nine colleges at the Rochester Institute of Technology, is expecting dozens of employers at the fair, which is set for Oct. 10 on the Henrietta campus. Some of the recruiters are themselves RIT/NTID graduates, another demonstration of the success these graduates have experienced in the workplace.

“Employers know they will find motivated, highly-skilled job candidates at RIT/NTID,” says NTID President Gerry Buckley. “NTID has 45 years of experience teaching technical skills to deaf and hard-of-hearing students, skills that are in demand in the marketplace. Our consistently high employment rate for graduates is proof that hiring our graduates makes good business sense in terms of the talent and diversity they bring to the workplace.”

Sponsored by the NTID Center on Employment, the Job Fair is held each October, which is Disability Employment Awareness Month. Among the employers expected at the NTID Job Fair this year are widely known local and national businesses, including Rochester General Health Systems, the CIA, IBM, Dow Chemical Co. and Procter and Gamble.

“Procter and Gamble has enjoyed success from RIT students, most noticeably in the areas of chemistry, manufacturing, packaging and logistics,” says Scott Van Nice, who graduated from RIT/NTID in 2002 and does computer forensics for P&G. “I’m a firm believer that there are many outstanding deaf candidates who are currently seeking a bachelor’s or master’s degree from RIT who would be a good match, and I am looking forward to meeting them.”

Other RIT/NTID alumni expected to be recruiting for their companies include Michelle (Keddy) Dunn with The Learning Center for the Deaf, in Framingham, Mass., and Greg Pollock from Dow.

“Our return to the career fair demonstrates NTID’s continuing ability to provide Dow with the talent and potential it seeks,” Pollock says. “As a global company, Dow has always been committed to developing a workforce that fully reflects the customers it serves.”

Dow, headquartered in Midland, Mich., is one of three recipients of the 2013 NTID Center on Employment Outstanding Employer Partner Awards, which recognize employers who have a sustained record of hiring RIT/NTID deaf and hard-of-hearing co-op students or graduates. The other awardees are The Kresge Hearing Research Institute at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich., and ZVRS, a video relay service based in Clearwater, Fla., that provides videophones, software and services to consumers.

The NTID Job Fair will be held from 12:30 to 4 p.m. in Lyndon Baines Johnson Hall, with parking in L Lot.