Page 23 - 1923 Mayr - To Dragma

208 TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

NATIONAL VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE COMMITTEE PLANS

The interest in Vocational Guidance for college students has been
growing steadily for the last few years, as is evidenced by the increasing
number of institutions including Vocational Counsellors or Advisers on
their staffs, as well as the growing number of Vocational Conferences
throughout the country. The present day undergraduate has much greater
opportunity of knowing what openings there are for the college trained
woman, and how to prepare for them before graduation than had her
older sister.

There are a number of organizations from which both the graduate
and the undergraduate may secure occupational information, such as the
Bureau for Vocational Information in New York City and the Southern
Woman's Educational Alliance in Richmond, Va. These both issue bulle-
tins of information, but neither does placement work. This is provided
for by the various Occupational Bureaus, located chiefly in large cities,
such as New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Pittsburgh, etc., as well as the
College and University Appointment Bureaus, which are prepared both to
give information as to openings and to make recommendations for posi-
tions.

Up to the present time the National Vocational Guidance Committee
of Alpha Omicron Pi has existed chiefly on paper, principally because of
lack of an occupational census of the fraternity. Now, however, that a
survey of the membership has been accomplished through the Grand Sec-
retary's office, we hope to make possible a Vocational Clearing House by
utilizing the knowledge and experience of our own members and in this
way supplement other sources of Vocational help and information. The
local committees of some of our Alumnae chapters have already been
functioning most effectively, as for example, the Seattle Alumnae, who
were able, not long since, to find openings for two of their eastern sisters
who wished to come west.

When we realize that Alpha Omicron Pi has nearly 3,000 associate
members and that these are scattered, not only in every state and terri-
tory of the Union, but in many parts of the world, we get some idea of our
fraternity potentialities. Over 50 per cent of these are married, from
some 10 per cent or 15 per cent we have been able to secure no information,
but the rest are engaged in more than fifty different businesses or profes-
sions, some of them leaders in their particular fields. There are, perhaps,
more in the teaching profession than in any other, but a few of the other
lines of work represented are: law, medicine, social and religious work
(including the ministry), nursing, banking, insurance, real estate, journal-
ism, music, art, dramatics, science (including chemistry, bacteriology,
pharmacy, etc.), tearoom and gift shop management, etc.

We have thus a finely equipped body from which to secure informa-
tion and advice as to openings in various fields in different sections of the
country and abroad, and it only remains to devise some means by which
to make effective and efficient use of it. With the cooperation of alumnae
chapters and individuals the National Vocational Guidance Committee
hopes to be of real service to the fraternity membership at large by acting
as a Clearing House of Information and Opportunities. May we not
count on your help?

H E L E N N. HENRY,

Chairman. National Committee on Vocational Guidance.