With the approaching final days of the spring term, the Department of British and American Studies FF UPJŠ became a real home of wonderful events which were realized within the framework of the already traditional Career and Club Week between May 15-17, 2023. The three days brought together current students and successful alumni, representatives of distinguished partner companies in Košice, colleagues from secondary schools and every supporter of our alma mater.
We started the series of events with the presentation of Dr. Očvarová, the director of the language school VISTA who shared her experiences in building a thriving business and motivated our students to be proactive and not to be afraid of the challenges that surely appear in the life of active persons. Within the Coffee with… series of meetings, the audience had the opportunity to discuss questions in connection with the Erasmus+ program with Mgr. Lucia Gallová.
It was immense pleasure and honour that His Excellency, Nigel Baker, the Ambassador of the UK to Slovakia also paid a visit to our department of Monday. We had a great discussion with his Excellency who later shared his life story and experiences as a career diplomat with our students.
The second day of the Career and Alumni Week was crowned by the presentation and discussion with Mgr. Štefánia Puzderová, our alumna and extramural doctoral student, who shared her life story and experiences in working with the startup Matsuko who are in the frontline of cutting-edge science in holographic technology. Her presentation was not only stunningly catching but highly professional and opened doors to the world of technology in which our graduates definitely do have a place.
The final day brought along the meeting with Mgr. Dominik Bujňák, another top alumnus of our department, who is now working at the Ministry of Defense of the Slovak Republic and spoke about his work in fighting hybrid threats, hoaxes, and misinformation. His life experiences and motivating career story provoked active discussions and we cannot sufficiently re-emphasize how proud we are that our graduates continue their careers at such important and prestigious positions.
The last day also offered two meetings with partner companies. First, Dr. Tomajková, senior consultant at Partners Group offered a concise overview of their activities in the area of creating and developing financial skills and knowledge about investment and monetary planning for which we are very thankful as we see it essential for young entrepreneurs. During the second meeting, Dr. Bodnárová the head of human resources management at Holcim offered a detailed overview about how to prepare for the struggles and troubles of the job markets. The two presentations were extremely important offering an insight into a rapidly developing region with excellent opportunities for young, motivated, and well-prepared graduates. By the help of our partners, we made another important step towards our goal to provide our students with a diploma of the best philology department of Slovakia and a contract in their first real job positions.
The series of events was concluded by a Club Cocktail Party in the premises of the Department of BAS where students, colleagues, alumni, and business partners had an opportunity to recall nice memories from the past, network, and build new ideas enjoying the community of the BAS. We would like to thank everyone who accepted our invitations and shared her time with the organizers of the 2023 spring term Career and Club Week.
Dr. Július Rozenfeld
Deputy-head of the BAS FF UPJŠ
and PhD students of the BAS FF UPJŠ
