Story by Amy Turner, Staff writer

Graduating college is a milestone to be celebrated, immediately followed by an intense job search. From the need to pay back all the student loans to finding fulfillment in their dream jobs, millennials are starting to enter the workplace.

To help in this transition process, The Town & Gown Partnership is hosting a workshop sponsored by the City of Murray and Heritage Bank. The workshop will be taking place on March 7, starting at 7:30 a.m. until noon in the Murray Room of the CSFB Center.

Town & Gown coordinator, Carol Brunn, has been involved in the planning process of this event from the beginning. She said the goal of the event is to bring professional development opportunities to millennials and business leaders.

According to Forbes.com, millennials will comprise more than one of three adult Americans by 2020 and 75 percent of the workforce by 2025. This means that businesses and universities are doing more research to understand what this new market demographic will look like. The Millennials in the Workplace workshop is hoping to be a part of that process.

“Town & Gown recognizes the importance of providing professional development opportunities that are both effective and affordable,” Brunn said. “As the millennial generation is the largest generation to enter the workforce since the baby boomers, this timely topic will offer our business leaders some insight into the diverseness of this generation.”

Speaking and leading the event is the mayor of Hopkinsville, Kentucky and president of Momentum Consulting, Carter Hendricks.

Registration for the event can be found online at www.raceralumni.com. The event costs $50 and registration ends March 2. Currently, over 50 people have registered to participate and 15 businesses will be represented between Kentucky and Tennessee, according to Brunn.

However, registration can also been done the old-fashioned way – pay by check, print a paper copy of the registration form, fill it out and send it to Brunn.

“When I became coordinator for the Town & Gown program in 2016, we surveyed all of our business partners to get their input on areas that Town & Gown could have a greater impact,” said Brunn. “The survey revealed that professional development was an important component to them.  We hope to vary the professional development topic each year and are looking forward to bringing in more exceptional speakers in the future.”