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̽����ѡ Turlock’s Vocational ESL classroom transformed into a job fair on April 8th, as human resources directors, tech company managers and other community volunteers coached local refugees on their professional skills and interests at ̽����ѡ’s Modesto site. 

Nine community volunteers facilitated practice interviews for 13 refugee & asylee clients throughout the morning in conjunction with Love Modesto, a community-wide volunteer day that gathered thousands of volunteers for more than 100 projects.

“We were overwhelmed and overjoyed with the success of the event,” said Yasmeen El-Farra, an employment specialist with ̽����ѡ’s Turlock office. “Not only were our clients thrilled with the opportunity they received to sharpen critical job search and career skills—including participation in mock interviews and receiving feedback—but our volunteers were equally excited at the opportunity to build new partnerships with members of the community that they met.”

Volunteers spent 20 to 30 minutes interviewing one or two clients before switching off to a table with another client. The goal was to expose job-seeking refugees to a variety of different interview styles to provide them with some “real world” experience.

Participant Nadia Khwaja said she appreciated the opportunity to learn how to talk about herself to others in an interview setting. “It was so good for me,” she said.

Refugee participants and volunteers forged bonds as they shared experiences and life stories in addition to discussing interview strategies for career success. Most attendees continued to shoot the breeze long after the interviews were complete. “It was great to talk to these folks and to get their stories and try to be helpful,” community volunteer Mike Turnrose said.

This was the first year that the ̽����ѡ participated in Love Modesto, which started as a project of Big Valley Grace Community Church in 2009. The annual event has since expanded and transformed into the Love Our Cities campaign, which has run similar volunteer days in more than 60 cities.

One of those events, Love Turlock, will play host to another ̽����ѡ mock interview session on April 29. If the event is anything like Love Modesto, it should be a great succcess. “We are very excited to continue this tradition and also to expand and create more opportunities for similar events in the future,” El-Farra said.