As the organization continues to grow over the years, Marquette’s Women in Business Club is looking to expand resources and opportunities offered to female students. The club focuses on teaching business skills but is open to women of all majors.
WIB was founded in 2007 to provide girls at Marquette with leadership seminars, resume-building tips and a professional networking system with fellow businesswomen. The club hosts frequent meetings, along with occasional workshops and bonding experiences.
Maria Kyriakopoulos, a senior in the College of Business Administration and co-president of WIB, said that while in the past the organization has primarily consisted of business majors, the current executive board is focused on diversifying club membership. She said a goal the group has is to bring girls of all majors together to expose them to a large business network.
Melissa McMahon, a senior in the College of Business Administration and co-president of WIB said the club is shifting their focus so any female students with a “hustle mindset” can join and be provided with self-advocacy skills that can be applied in the real world. She said helping girls develop a business mindset is a task she would like to achieve in the upcoming year.
“My personal goal would be to have all the girls come out of this year advocating for themselves, having a strong sense of self and a community of girls to turn to in terms of getting answers to questions about how to build their career,” McMahon said.
Ella Coulter, a senior in the College of Business Administration and secretary for WIB, said the club’s mission statement focuses on empowering, educating, connecting and promoting students to be successful. She said the most meaningful part of this statement is “connection,” which correlates with the sense of community McMahon said the organization is emphasizing this year.
When not hosting business-focused seminars and meetings, WIB puts on occasional group-bonding events for members to relax and connect with their peers, McMahon said. These meetups can consist of any activity from painting to group exercise, depending on what the executive board plans.
Kyriakopoulos said one of her favorite bonding events was when the club collaborated with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC, a national tax services agency, to host a group workout class. Coulter also said the event was a highlight during her time at WIB.
“We try and make [the club] a good blend of bonding and fun workshops. [The barre class] was pretty cool because it was with an actual employer who hosted it, so it was fun to be able to try a new workout class. It’s a fun connecting thing to do and bond with other girls in the club, but also have the opportunity to talk to an employer,” Coulter said.
Not only do employers connect with WIB, but individual businesspeople also pay visits to offer advice to the women in the club. Kyriakopoulos said the organization is hosting two important seminars sometime soon in the near future, one about negotiation and the other about time management. Official dates have yet to be determined for both of the programs.
Coulter said Kristie Rogers, the associate professor of management at Marquette, will be offering an upcoming workshop on negotiation for women in the business world. McMahon said going to Rogers’ lecture is crucial because she helps girls both secure better pay in the workforce and connect on an interpersonal level.
“Attending the negotiations workshop is hugely important not only because negotiating for yourself and advocating for yourself is so important, but because the woman leading it is [Kristie] Rogers. She is insanely kind and insanely smart, and you don’t want to miss the chance to make a connection with her,” McMahon said.
Kyriakopoulos said the other upcoming seminar is being held by James Valentine, the Associate Professor of Practice, Finance and the director of AIM at Marquette. She said he will be teaching time management to girls in WIB during the seminar.
“I highly recommend that the girls come to all the workshops we set up because these workshops are customized and crafted to what we think would be best for them and to grow their abilities. We’re excited for this,” Kyriakopoulos said.
With over 100 women attending the first meeting this year, WIB’s growth in recent years is evident. As the club expands in numbers, McMahon said WIB will be providing high-quality opportunities such as these seminars for a more academically diverse group of female students.
“We’re called Women in Business, but I think that’s a more all-encompassing title [than it sounds]. It doesn’t mean just women from the business school, it’s for women who mean business,” Coulter said.
