Lake Forest College sets record for career event attendance
A fall networking event at the Gorter Family Career Advancement Center connected 333 students with 172 industry professionals through a structured rotation format.
By Marco Whitaker ·
Lake Forest College hosted a record-breaking career development session on Thursday, October 22. The event brought 172 working professionals to campus for an organized series of short interactions with students.
The program, managed by the Gorter Family Career Advancement Center, utilized a strict time-based format. Participants completed nine distinct rotations, with each individual round lasting exactly nine minutes. This structure allowed for thousands of brief professional exchanges to occur within a single evening.
Alumni participation played a central role in the event's attendance figures. A total of 91 former students attended as professionals. This group represented 53 percent of the total 172 industry participants, highlighting a strong return to campus for the annual fall gathering.
Student engagement was equally substantial. The college reported 333 student attendees for the session. The average ratio of students to professionals stood at two to one. The venue also featured nine dedicated employer spotlight booths and one international alumni booth for additional outreach.
Min Kyaw, a 2027 graduate majoring in politics and minoring in public policy, attended to expand his professional contacts. He stated that the event provided him with new meaningful connections and a clearer view of his future career path. Peter Dubois, an alumnus from the class of 1985 and Senior Vice President at Morgan Stanley, described the event as a positive way to cultivate a hiring pipeline.
The college counted more than 3,000 total connections made during the proceedings. The event served as a primary mechanism for students to showcase their skills and gain insight into current hiring practices across various industries.
