The Christian School Recruitment Conference, which enables schools to build relationships with education-focused students, returns to BJU Monday and Tuesday in the Family Room of the dining common.
Around 70 schools from all over the world will attend the conference, said Dr. Brian Carruthers, dean of the School of Education. Representatives from schools, both stateside and international, will be looking for potential employees or interns.
“We have a close relationship with the Christian schools,” Carruthers said. “We want to provide a service to the Christian schools in helping them find teachers.”
Carruthers strongly encourages students to visit the displays even if they aren’t education majors because Christian school communities need the support of other Christian professionals in addition to teachers. Carruthers said the conference is a great time to build relationships with these schools so students can better understand the ministries of Christian schools. Students who visit the recruiters’ displays will know how to better pray for the Christian school ministry, will build a relationship with the administration of those schools, and will know how to better support the school, whether it be through finances or someday putting their own child in one of those schools, Carruthers said.
Jennifer VerWay, a senior elementary education major, has attended the recruitment conference every year and said that going every year has given her perspective on the different types of schools that exist, as well as helping her to know what kinds of questions to ask the administrators of the schools. VerWay said attending the recruitment conference has helped her to see what schools are looking for in their teachers and to learn how to be best prepared.
“Those conferences were good for me to just be able to start thinking, ‘All right, what does God want me to do?’” VerWay said.
Lydia Anglea majored in string pedagogy at BJU as an undergrad, and she always thought she would use her education as a teacher in a private studio, not at a Christian school. But then she decided to attend the recruitment conference, where she ended up meeting her current employers, who were not even looking to hire a music teacher at that time.
“The Lord provided direction and provision for a move to a brand-new place—a place where I knew no one, to a job that I never saw myself doing,” Anglea said. “And now I can’t imagine life any other way. I would strongly encourage all students, education and non-education majors alike, to go visit and talk with the different schools at the conference.”
While only education majors are required to attend the Christian School Recruitment Conference, all students are welcome and encouraged to attend. Upon arrival, students should have their ID card scanned to provide them with a name tag.
