Bilingual job fair creates opportunities for residents
Puentes members Heather Smith and Sherrel Rieger with Gaspar Osorio Raymundo and Yohayra Mejia Agustin. Gaspar is a junior at Dover, and Yohayra is a senior at Buckeye Career Center from Dover.
If you are able to speak another language in addition to English, area employers may want to speak with you. A bilingual job fair, the first of its kind for the area, will take place Tuesday, March 19 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Tuscarawas County YMCA. Many area organizations and businesses are expected to attend.
The job fair is the work of a local group called Puentes, which means bridges in Spanish.
“We get together to think about what we can do to better serve the community,” Puentes member Sherrel Rieger said, “while also thinking of ways that the community can better interact with its members, especially with students who are coming up through our education system.”
As an example, Rieger spoke of the group’s recent house-buying workshop, geared toward area immigrant families.
“The idea of a job fair came up as we realized students who are graduating are beginning to look at possibilities that may be open to them after high school,” she said. “Not everybody has the opportunity to go to college, but there are many great jobs in Tuscarawas County where an agency or business would benefit greatly from having a bilingual person on board.”
The job fair is free and open to anyone who is able to speak another language in addition to English.
“It can be Spanish or any other language,” Rieger said. “We are inviting those who might speak Spanish or one of the native Guatemalan languages, but we aren’t limiting it to that. It’s for anyone who considers themselves bilingual, no matter what languages they may speak.”
Puentes has invited area schools to make the day a field trip to the job fair as they are able to identify bilingual students who may benefit from the job fair.
“We are inviting high school students, college-age students and young people to attend,” Rieger said, “but if a bilingual person is outside that group and is looking for a job, we certainly won’t turn anybody away.”
Rieger said Puentes is a gathering of about a dozen people who have for many years served the area’s Guatemalan community.
“We accompany them when they need help, going along for medical or other appointments and answering questions they may have. We have a network of people we can connect with, and even when we don’t have an answer, we can find it out for them. Every Wednesday at Lifebridge Church, we have three people from Puentes who go, and all they do is help with paperwork and answer questions, help with phone calls and filling out applications for things. They’re very busy every week.”
Rieger said the job fair is a great opportunity for students whose parents may not be aware of the job opportunities available to their bilingual child.
“They will be able to see that there are jobs available right here in our community, and they can apply for those jobs. It’s an eye-opener for both students and area agencies who will find that there are many people available who can step into these jobs successfully,” she said. “These students also have been educated in our school systems, and they bring that extra talent or gift, really, of being able to speak an extra language.”
Rieger said the New Philadelphia Fire Department will be on hand, along with Job & Family Services and local health departments. Most area pharmacies are invited, and a few businesses from Stark County also are expected to attend the bilingual job fair.
The Tuscarawas County YMCA is at 600 Monroe St. in Dover.