RCL Reflection 3: Come for the Food and Prizes

This week, I received an email invitation to attend the Freshmen Career Services Orientation. Personally, I think such an event would be beneficial for a first-year student. I’m curious to learn what kind of resources my school has to offer. Some students however, may dismiss the email as a waste of time. Knowing this, the Career Services Center designed the email to entice those who are uninterested. What attracts students more than free food? Well, “AMAZING PRIZES!” may be the answer. In addition, the event has a broad time range in which students can drop-in. Furthermore, the email estimates that the orientation will only take about a half an hour for each student. The email seems convincing because it highlights the many commonplaces associated with a college kid.


So far, I’ve mentioned all of the perks of attending without naming the actual benefits. The email assumes that students wouldn’t go without an added incentive. For that reason, Career Services tries to lure students with refreshments and giveaways. From past experience, the Center probably knows that attendance might be poor otherwise. At the core of the email, Career Services promotes civic engagement. The orientation’s goal is to inform students of the many employment opportunities offered via Penn State. At the bottom and in small font, the email lists the following benefits: Find out what employers want, Learn how to market yourself successfully, Explore major and career connections, etc.  Since this list is small and shuffled down to the end of the email, it seems to have minimal significance. In reality, these are the true reasons why one should attend the event.

Why would the Career Services Center disguise its motive? Simply put, it doesn’t care why students attend. Instead, it just wants them to show up. Will this rhetorical technique work? I’m looking forward to finding out.

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3 thoughts on “RCL Reflection 3: Come for the Food and Prizes

  1. Nathan Larkin

    I too received the email regarding the career services event that was held today; however, I did not look at it closely. For me, the mere prospect of attaining information that will help me in post-graduation aspirations was enough to persuade me to drop by. You say that Career Services is attempting to “lure” students to come out to the event with prizes and such. Perhaps another way of stating this is to say that career services is attempting to persuade students to stop by. In this instance, I believe that the folks at Career Services are appealing to the logic and reasoning of the stereotypical college student, that free stuff is enticing. In this regard, Career Services attempts to utilize logos in turning out a crowd for their event. It seems a bit ridiculous that Career Services feels it necessary to disguise the true benefits of coming out to the event, getting a job after graduation, with the prospect of winning some prize. This lends to the commonplace that college students are unconcerned with their future, a commonplace that may be inherently counterintuitive given that reason young people are in college is to advance their future potential.

  2. Iman Malloy

    I received this email. I am one of the students that just dismissed it. In fact, before I just read this, I had forgotten all about it. I feel like sometimes students get so wrapped up in how much they are already involved in, who would want to attend another info session. But I see where you’re coming from. I’m personally not the type of personal who finds prizes appealing because I never feel like i’m going to win them. I do like the sound of food though. That will always attract me to go somewhere. I don’t even think that this is something that services use to try to conceal/disguise their purpose anymore. I think they’re literally saying, “we have food and maybe we want to talk to you a little more, so come.”

  3. Kayla Lord

    I’m starting to notice this trend of advertisement on campus too. I was hired at the Bryce Jordan Center and in the last two weeks I’ve had to attend two different training sessions and the incentive for coming was “food and beverages.” This struck me as kind of strange because you need to train before you can work a shift… so, why would someone need that incentive? Apparently, it’s because employers see the typical “college kid” as an individual that lacks personal control and motivation. I find this idea ridiculous because someone that is taking the time to attend college should be able to set goals and determine a way to accomplish them. For instance, I would like to find a job relatively quickly after graduation. I could do this by attending this Freshman Career Services Orientation. Achieving my goal should be incentive enough. It’s almost insulting that they feel they need to advertise in this manner. Instead they should take a route that highlights the fact that if you were to come out you would be seizing valuable opportunities and working towards becoming a successful, prepared piece of society!

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