From Lost to Linked: A Veteran Builds the Career Fair He Needed

MSU student veteran DaVonte McClam turned his frustration into action and launched a career fair for veterans.

By Joe Tougas ’86

DaVonte McClam felt lost when he left the Navy four years ago.  

Once in an environment of great comradery, his friends in the service weren’t in touch anymore. He was in Connecticut, far from his home and family in Minnesota. And he had a hard time navigating the benefits for which he’d become eligible. One office visit after another, he said, offered little help.

“I struggled for almost two years collecting all of the people that I needed to collect in order to get my benefits straightened out,” McClam said, “and that process is similar to, I imagine, many, many, many, many different veterans. … It's a lot of pointing fingers, it's a broken system. There's no one collective place you can go for information.”

Hearing similar experiences from other student veterans after he enrolled at Minnesota State University, Mankato, McClam had a brainstorm that has resulted in a first-of-its-kind job fair at MSU that is specifically designed for veterans both on campus and in the community.

The Veterans Career Fair is taking place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, April 30 in the Centennial Student Union Ballroom. So far, around 50 employers have signed up be there talking with attendees about jobs and internships. The free event, which is open to all veterans as well as the general public, will also provide ongoing educational sessions that will help answer questions veterans have about services they may be seeking.

“One of the founding ideas was to bring together the community of veteran supporters so that, to the best of our ability, we had every kind of person that a veteran would need to get their benefits, whether it be health benefits or education benefits, whatever the case may be, anything that a veteran may need will be there in that space,” McClam explains. “And we'll be giving classes every 30 minutes on those core things.”

McClam said he hatched the idea during fall semester; when he brought it to the Career Development Center, they were enthusiastic about the prospect.

“They were so excited about it that they pretty much just took the reins from there, and then we worked together over the last semester and a half about how to make it happen, and now it's coming together.”

McClam, a Robbinsdale native majoring in Creative Writing, is active within the veteran community on campus. He noticed that a few of his friends were struggling to find work or having difficulty getting veterans payments and benefits. Knowing that many employers in the area are keen on hiring veterans, a tailored job fair connecting veterans and employers made sense. 

“The problem is that with all of that enthusiasm, and the general working knowledge that a veteran is a good person to hire, there isn't a career fair specifically for that,” he said. “It was to fill the gap for veterans on campus who don't have jobs. We're struggling through our degrees here, and we need a little more income. It's very difficult for us to find that sometimes. So, putting together a room full of people that they know will hire them or have jobs available was a big focus for me.”

The A-Board, a recognized student organization (RSO) that McClam is part of, is co-hosting the event. The A-Board was created to decrease the student drop rate while increasing student retention and graduation rates. There’s no criteria for membership in the A-Board, McClam explained; all students are welcome to participate. 

Similarly, all students—and the public in general—are welcome to participate in the Veterans Career Fair. McClam sees a clear connection between the RSO and the fair.

“The Veterans Career Fair aligns with our vision,” he says. The veteran community on campus is small, McClam says, and can sometimes feel disregarded. “So it really takes somebody like myself, or a very motivated organization, to break them out of their shell and get them involved,” he says. “I think the Veterans Career Fair is a huge part of that.”