Undergraduate Women in Business (UWIB) is a new club that’s in the process of becoming an official organization here at AU. Although there is currently an existing Kogod Women in Business club, it is only open to MBA students, and therefore this new organization would be the first of its kind open to undergraduate students. UWIB recently co-hosted the “Women Who Mean Business” panel on February 9th, which included speakers that were currently faculty or recent graduates of AU. The panel addressed topics such as finding strong female mentors, networking, negotiating compensation, and working to shatter the “glass ceiling.” After learning about the club at this panel, we sat down with members of the new e-board to find out some more information.
Her Campus American: Who makes up the e-board and what are their positions?
Undergraduate Women in Business: The President is Isabella Echeverry, Vice President of Outreach is Gwynn Pollard, Vice President of Finance is Katrena Njiki, Vice President of Marketing is Chyanna Antonio, Vice President of Social Media is Ragini Ahuja, and Natasha Zakir is a chair.
HC AU: What inspired you to start this club?
UWIB: So I primarily wanted to do it just for women in finance, because I really felt that there was a lack of women within the field and the industry in general – after I attended an event at a bank, there was literally one or two women within the field that I was interested in. But when I came back [to AU] I realized there weren’t even enough women here studying finance to make the club so selective. And then after, I think through talking to the people who are now my e-board, I decided that it would be a good idea just to help all women develop professionally.
HC AU: What will meetings look like?
UWIB: Right now we’re mostly working on planning events. So we have our general interest meeting coming up in a few weeks, and we’re also hoping to have outreach events, such as going to Woodrow Wilson high school and talking to high school women about degrees in business, and hosting workshops for the AU community (and possibly opening those up to the larger D.C. area). In terms of our actual meetings, we haven’t really settled yet on what those will look like. I think we’re leaning toward generally discussing how we can help our members and what they want to do and what kind of programming they want to see. And I think something we will definitely incorporate into our meetings is a list of opportunities we have compiled available to women, refined by industry, which includes internships and programs that employers have to offer. And I think we’re definitely going to focus on how to get people into these programs and internships.
HC AU: Have you witnessed a lack of female representation in these industries in Kogod or at AU specifically?
UWIB: Honestly, I feel like there’s a lot of power women in Kogod, which was a part of the inspiration for the club too. I think a lot of these power women who are juniors and seniors are able to now give back and help inspire younger students.
HC AU: Is the club only open to business majors?
UWIB: It is open to non-business majors as well. I think a lot of what we were saying about the differences in representation in business industries, and how there are a lot of powerful women in Kogod, also is true in other schools such as SPA, but there aren’t as many opportunities for them to pass that forward. And to grow professionally in other schools it’s a little bit more challenging. So we’re hoping to get as many people involved as we can. Additionally, we want to be a resource for other people too, so it’s not just us hosting events but we are also helping other organizations host events as well to help empower more women.
HCAU: How can people contact you if they want to get involved?
UWIB: Our general interst meeting is Wednesday, February 22nd from 8-9pm in Kogod New Student Lounge. You can also find us on Instagram at uwib_au and on Facebook at AUUWIB.
Photo Credit: All photos belong to Undergraduate Women in Business club.