Justin Trudeau wil speak at York next Thursday about becoming an active and engaged citizen.
The education, environmental and youth advocate is the most illustrious of four keynote speakers invited to address students at Career Conversations ’07 next week. Trudeau (right), who has also recently declared his Liberal candidacy in Montreal, will be introduced by York President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri before launching into a one-hour speech titled "Tomorrow Begins Today" at 10am Sept. 27 in the Faire-Fecan Theatre, Accolade East, on the Keele campus.
Tickets for Trudeau’s talk are disappearing fast. Of 280 tickets available to students, about half have already been scooped up. Students who wish to attend are encouraged to register online, then pick up their tickets from the Career Centre, Suite 202, McLaughlin College, by tomorrow at 4pm.
Trudeau highlights a very different career event organized by York’s Career Centre this year. Instead of thrusting students into a room full of potential employers and hoping they find a match, the centre has scheduled 23 conversational panels with educators, employers and York alumni Sept. 25-27 on topics ranging from how to get into law school or nursing or teachers college to what it’s like to work in marketing, at a pharmaceutical, for a not-for-profit or the government. The topics are geared largely towards arts students, who form the majority at York.
The different format grew out of feedback from previous career fairs, says Julie Rahmer, Career Centre communications & Web services manager. "We find that students have richer conversations during topic-specific panel sessions than in a room full of potential employers," she says. "Hence the title, Career Conversations. The idea is that conversations can have a ripple effect. One conversation could spark a whole new direction."
In addition to the keynote speakers and conversational panels, those activities include a Further Education Expo. On Tuesday, for one day only, students can browse among 70 exhibitors promoting graduate programs in medicine, law, business, education, social services and environmental studies at schools in Canada, the United States and Australia.
Unlike the Justin Trudeau keynote presentation, the other keynote addresses and panels do not require preregistration.
Other keynote speakers
Douglas Peers (right),
dean of York’s Faculty of Graduate Studies, gives a talk, "So You're Thinking about Grad School? Now What?" Sept. 25 at 3pm in McLaughlin College Junior Common Room (014)
Networking and 
career guru Tim Cork (BA `81), (left), president of NextCareer and best-selling author of Tapping the Iceberg, will talk about "Achieving Straight As through Attitude, Aptitude & Action" Sept. 25 at 4:30pm in McLaughlin College Junior Common Room (014)
Randall Craig (right), Monster.ca career columnist and author of the bestselling book Personal Balance Sheet, speaks about how to "Achieve Life Balance" Sept. 26 at noon in McLaughlin College Junior Common Room (014)
Students are encouraged to glance at the program and register online for the activities that will make a difference to them at Career Conversations '07.