UNIVERSITY of Guyana Berbice Campus Open/Career Day opened on Wednesday with hundreds of students in attendance.

The event held under the theme ‘Expanding Your Horizons: Exploring the Possibilities’ featured some 40 booths from various companies across Guyana.

In a very interactive presentation, Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Professor Ivelaw Lloyd Griffith gave away two $50,000 scholarships to aid with tuition at the university and urged students to be agents of change by focusing on excellence and being honest while striving for the best.

“If you are interested in just being a B student or a C student and just making it through, don’t come to the University of Guyana; we don’t want students who are interested in mediocrity. If you want to be an excellent student, if you want to be a change agent and want to achieve the high bar, then do well in your primary school and secondary school so when you come to the university, you would be adequately prepared for excellence,” said Professor Griffith.

He also warned students against plagiarism and urged those present to use the opportunity presented by the university through the career day to explore their options and work towards achieving said goal.

Among the booths that received a lot of attention were ExxonMobil and their partners, El Dorado Offshore and JSL International. Speaking with Guyana Chronicle, Communications Analyst for ExxonMobil, Nicholas Yearwood said his company was extremely pleased to have been invited by the University of Guyana to participate, as they saw the opportunity as an excellent one to educate and impact people outside of the capital city.

“We have given out in excess of over 300 recruitment cards with our detailed information and have encouraged people to submit CVs for us to review so whenever opportunities arise, we revisit them to become candidates for the opening,” said Yearwood.

Meanwhile, Shonna Glasgow, Senior Recruitment and Manpower Officer at
the Ministry of Social Protection who has an office in Princess Elizabeth Road, New Amsterdam, said she was pleasantly surprised that not a lot of people are aware of their recruitment office in Berbice.

She was grateful for the opportunity to participate and expects a massive influx of applications based on responses.

Among the participants were several commercial banks, the Guyana Post
Office Corporation; Guyana Sugar Corporation estates and training school; the Regional Health Authority, Region Six; Department of Public Information; Guyana Rice Development Board; Nand Persaud and Company; Massy Group of Companies; the Guyana Police Force; and several others.

The UGBC Education faculty also had on display a large booth that teachers created under the theme “Improvisation”. The educational pieces on display were made from recycled materials such as plastic bottles, cups, old DVDs etc.

The career day also featured cultural pieces as well as a display at the Natural Science Faculty where several experiments were done, including dissection of frogs, much to the amazement of students.