Students at the University of Nevada, Reno will have a chance to talk with potential employers at the Career and Internship Fair, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. next Thursday, April 9 at the Joe Crowley Student Union’s fourth-floor ballrooms on campus.

Fifty-one businesses will be providing information at the fair, according to Jane Bessette, director of Career Connections at the University’s College of Business. In addition, students can attend the Networking Reception the evening before the fair, 4 – 6 p.m., April 8 at the Crowley Student Union’s Great Room.

“Students can mix and network with potential employers in an informal atmosphere at the reception,” she said. “They can get tips on what to bring to the career fair, how to prepare their resumes, etc.”

Terry McAfee, chief financial officer and vice president of Sierra Sciences LLC, a local biotechnology firm, will be at the career fair again this year to mine for good students in hopes of filling his firm’s future employment needs.

“Students from the University are key for us,” said McAfee. “Typically we start the relationship at a job fair with students who aren’t graduating immediately, but it’s a chance to start a relationship with them. By the time they apply, we already know them and they’ve made a good impression on us.”

Sierra Sciences has a long-standing partnership with the University. The firm got its start in June 1999, with one employee using University laboratories, before acquiring its current facilities on Rock Boulevard in Reno. It now has 25 employees, with about half of them being Nevada graduates or interns. McAfee looks for top molecular and cellular biology students, as well as chemical engineering students who have an emphasis in biology.

“We’ve been very satisfied with the quality of the students we’ve hired from UNR,” McAfee said. “The students we’ve built a relationship with – I make sure their resumes go on the top of the pile.”

Sierra Sciences is a biotechnology company with a mission to develop a pharmaceutical that will stop or reverse cellular aging.

“We’re going to change the world if we’re successful,” he said, with unbridled enthusiasm. “We will be able to impact and address a lot of diseases.”

And, when they do, some University of Nevada, Reno graduates will surely have a hand in it.

For more information on the University’s Networking Reception or Career and Internship Fair, call Bessette, (775) 682-9144.