The Society for Human Resource Management, or SHRM, recently became a brand-new society at Park University. Their goal is to help students, staff, faculty and the Parkville community network with Human Resource professionals in order to create internship and employment opportunities. According to shrm.org, “SHRM is the world’s largest Human resources professional society, representing 285,000 members in more than 165 countries.”

In the past 90 days, 120 Park University students have been recruited across 22 states and 43 campuses with the majority being right here in Parkville, Missouri. “What’s unique about SHRM is that we are not biased and only for Human Resources majors. We are actually the opposite. We are for every major because our goals and mission for the club are to create networking events for students of all majors and to help create internships and career pathways with HR directors that belong strictly with SHRM,” said Dustin Woods, professor of Business and Human Resource and the faculty advisor of SHRM. 

Being a member of SHRM comes with its own set of benefits. SHRM has its own interviewing officer to set up mock interviews with members so they can practice answering interview questions for jobs they apply for. Members also have access to SHRM KC, the Kansas City chapter of SHRM, that has been around since 1952. Being able to attend these meetings gives the opportunity to meet and network with Human Resources directors from all over the Kansas City area. There are also opportunities to travel to both the Missouri SHRM convention and the National SHRM convention, taking place in Chicago this year. This allows networking and getting members’ names out to big organizations like Google and Adobe. Finally, members of SHRM have access to a huge database of Human Resource laws that are added and change daily. When asked what her favorite part of being a member of SHRM was, SHRM president Henrietta Stremel said, “it gets me out and not just in my studies, but to meet other people in organizations and just know that there’s opportunities for me.”
SHRM provides valuable social and networking opportunities to assist students, staff, alumni and the community in acquiring the career of their dreams. SHRM meets every Wednesday at noon on the first floor of Norrington Center.  If interested, contact SHRM president Stremel at [email protected] or SHRM faculty advisor Woods at [email protected].