Area schools join in CampusPhilly event
Stephanie Takach & Janhvai Purohit
Issue date: 10/3/08 Section: News
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"[Campus Philly] is a non-profit organization. We try to get students to come to the City," Herrmann said. "We're looking to get them information about schools and internships."
According to Herrmann, 20 colleges in the Philadelphia area are involved with Campus Philly, and the organization works with the schools to get the word out.
"We've been at Drexel a lot this year, hosting back-to-school events," Herrmann said. "Drexel is good because it's sort of integrated, but a lot of schools are just closed off. For those that come out for the festival, the idea is to get you comfortable with the city, to break out of the bubble."
Ally Canestri, a sophomore in environmental engineering, said she was surprised when seeing that many of the schools participating weren't from Philadelphia.
"We try to reach out to schools in the Philadelphia area, and sometimes we get schools from outside of Philly. We even had one school this year from Maryland," Herrmann said. He also said that getting schools comfortable with the City is one of the overall goals of Campus Philly.
"We want everyone to know what's going on in the City," Herrmann said. "Our goal is not only today, but throughout the year, to make sure college students discover the City."
One of the major sponsors of the day was Intern U, founded in 2006 as an organization to pair college students with clients for paid internships.
"People call us the match.com of internships, but we want to be the Facebook of internships," Tiffany Johnson, vice president of marketing for Intern U, said." We talk to [students] on the phone, we get face to face time with them. We just get to know them. We work on everything from skill level to logistics."
Intern U has partnerships with about 12 colleges and is looking to keep the talent of students local, according to Johnson.
"It's good for students because they make money, and because they get hands-on work experience. Our ultimate goal is to get them full-time employers, sometimes with us, sometimes in other places," she said.
This is the seventh year Campus Philly is being held, and although it has followed a similar model every year, the organization has tried to diversify in terms of its features, according to Herrmann. This is also the 22nd year the museums have been free and the fourth year the Red Bull-TNT freestyle motocross has been held. New this year was the skate demo.
"Our largest supporter is the City of Philadelphia. They provided the police, the cleanup and all of that. They actually originally founded the festival," Herrmann said.
Also involved with the College Day festival were 29 local colleges and universities, Intern U, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Wired 96.5, CW57, AT&T, SEPTA, YRockonXPN, Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation, Fairmount Park Commission and Starbucks Coffee Company.
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