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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

Women in Business fosters professional skills, camaraderie

Making business connections may not be a top priority in the minds of a majority of college students, but for members of IU's Women in Business club, networking and gaining practical experience for the corporate world are major objectives.\n"We have two purposes -- to develop women both professionally and personally," said senior and WIB President Stephanie Krause.\nThe club also provides an opportunity for women to take on leadership roles in a field traditionally dominated by males.\n"The main goal is just to increase everyone's awareness, because in the business school, women are a minority," WIB Vice President and junior Jenna Gettelfinger said. "This is a good way to get to know each other outside of classes. It's also good for networking and getting people involved, because leadership is something that businesses really look for." \nThe club held its first mass meeting Sept. 9. \n"We're still waiting for some applications to come in," Gettelfinger said.\nShe said that while about 120 people attended the first meeting because of a boost in publicity, the club usually ends up with about 40 active members by the end of the school year. \nMembership is open to all interested students, regardless of major. While the majority of the club's members are business majors, others are working toward minors in business or Liberal Arts and Management Program certificates.\nKrause said although membership is open to men, WIB currently has no active male participants.\nTo remain active, WIB members are required to participate in eight club activities each semester. These must include at least one each of monthly mass meetings, community service projects, social events and working at the bagel stand at the Kelley School of Business to raise funds. \nMass meetings of WIB often involve panels of graduate students or guest speakers who have been successful in business. \n"It's not just a club that meets to say 'hi.' They make sure it's worthwhile, so they give us presentations that are noteworthy and useful for our future," new member and freshman Angie Meruani said\nAt the organization's first meeting this year, BP employees spoke to the group. \n"It seems like a pretty frequent thing for them to have outsiders come in," Meruani said.\nWIB events draw entrepreneurs, executives and other businesspeople who motivate club members and can even act as a basis for the formation of business connections. \n"My roommate got her internship through networking at a Women in Business event," Krause said.\nWIB also plans to sponsor a business etiquette dinner for its members in November. \n"(The dinner) spans lots of things, but it's mainly about how to act in a professional setting with kind of a social twist, as well," Krause said.\nGettelfinger said the club's goal for the etiquette dinner is to relieve pressure often felt in business situations. \n"When you go into an interview-type setting, you don't have to worry about which fork to use. This way, you can just focus on the interview," Gettelfinger said.\nSocial events organized by WIB include attending plays, sporting events and even a proposed self-defense class put on by the Bloomington Police Department, Gettelfinger said. The club also regularly holds community service projects such as canned food and clothing drives, retirement home visits and outreaches in partnership with Girls Inc., a nonprofit youth organization. Club members also participated together in Hoosiers Outrun Cancer, a 5K run/walk held Sept. 18.\nIn addition to providing a social and professional springboard for its members, WIB also awards two annual $500 scholarships to members, Krause said.\nWIB was started at IU about 25 years ago but soon disappeared from campus. Concerned faculty members decided to re-establish the club and nurse it back to health about a decade ago, Gettelfinger said.\n"For me, it has been my favorite part of (attending) IU," Krause said. "I think it's a small enough organization that you can really get to know the people involved and form some good connections."\nFor more information about WIB, log on to www.indiana.edu/~wib. The group has yet to schedule the next meeting.\n-- Contact staff writer Kate FitzGerald at kafitzge@indiana.edu .

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