By Sergio Berrueta
The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco has teamed up with East Los Los Angeles College to assemble their first joint outreach conference on Friday.
The conference, in conjunction with ELAC Economics Department, will be held at the Federal Reserve Bank in Downtown Los Angeles.
The event will include a speech by a keynote speaker yet to be announced.
“We hope that students will gain perspective on the different career paths in the field of economics,” economics professor Humberto Merino-Hernandez said.
“In particular, we want to expose attendees to as many roles as possible including economic research, banking supervision/ regulation, and cash operations.”
After the keynote speech,three one-hour sessions will focus on the inner workings of the Federal Reserve as well as personal wealth and career goals.
Guests can attend a tour of cash operations to see how the federal currency is processed followed by a lecture on how to manage personal finance and credit scores.
A job-readiness workshop will be devoted to résumé-= writing and interviewing from Human Resources within the Federal Reserve.
It will also discuss how to network with a personal brand on social media avenues for future jobs and internships.
A luncheon with a question and answer panel with bank officials and employees speaking about their current roles within the Reserve will also be provided.
After the panel, guests will be able to network with the speakers as well with those in attendance.
“We want those in attendance to acquire guidance from human resources professionals who review resumes and cover letters on a daily basis.
By equipping students with best practices, we hope to make them competitive for internship openings within government and quasi-government agencies,” Merino-Hernandez said.
Students majoring in economics can attend, but other students interested in economics can attend as well.
“As a former ELAC Husky, I had the opportunity to intern for Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco during my sophomore year,” Merino-Hernandez said. “Although this was a great learning experience, I realized that the Federal Reserve System was not as diverse as I had expected.”
Merino-Hernandez discovered that the economics field was not diverse, with few women and even fewer representations of minorities.
He also realized most were not aware of different career path within the field of economics.
Merino-Hernandez says that he wanted to help ELAC students with career opportunities in economics and after a few meetings with his former supervisor Andres Curtolo, they agreed on creating awareness for students.
According to Hernandez, they want to equip students with “professional development tools” to help them get internships. The event will begin at 7:15 a.m. until 2 p.m.
For more information, contact Merino-Hernandez at humbertomerino@live.com.