The 41st annual Diversity Career Fair offered an opportunity for employers and students to discuss the importance of diversity in the work place.

The fair, held Thursday night at Kellogg Center, provided a forum for all students to network with representatives from 116 different government, profit and nonprofit organizations about job opportunities after graduation.

Carol Stier, Office of Placement Services events manager, said events such as the Diversity Career Fair, formerly known as the Minority Career Fair, help both employers and employees celebrate their differences.

"Achieving diversity is a big issue with organizations," Stier said. "It's not just limited to career fairs - it's part of whole new diversity programs."

Brittany Fuller, a member of the Career Events Coordinating Student Staff, said the fair also helps define what diversity includes.

"A lot of times students aren't aware of what diversity means," Fuller said.

Fuller said a truly diverse workplace embraces a wide spectrum of differences including, but not limited to, gender, age, ethnicity and cultural background.

Political science junior Huda Mohamed, who attended the fair, said achieving true diversity in the work force is the responsibility of both job recruiters and applicants.

"There's way more to go, but it's not only up to the companies, it's up to the students and people as well," Mohamed said.

"For example, getting more kids to come participate in the fair would get more African Americans to become aware of jobs and opportunities available to them."

Joelle Johnson, one of the job recruiters at the fair representing Nestlé corporation, said companies could not be successful if they didn't embrace the core value of diversity.

"Making sure that we have diversity in the work force is a positive thing," Johnson said. "Different perspectives tie to innovation."

Attending the fair was important to supply chain management junior Katherine Threatt because, as a busy college student, she said she often doesn't have enough time to search for job opportunities online.

"The fair is accessible to a broader network of corporations," Threatt said. "You get to see a lot of different opportunities that you normally wouldn't be aware of."

Threatt also said corporations that attend job fairs are on the right track to increasing the diversity of their employee pool.

"They're expanding their base for recruiting and hiring, rather than staying inside the corporation," Threatt said.

Lansing Police Department Lt. John Parks said having a presence at the fair is the first step in creating a department representative of the people it serves.

"This is the best opportunity as a police department to recruit individuals who reflect the racial composition of our city," Parks said.