June 2, 2021 by Women in Business Ambassadors
Students tend to stay confined to their college, joining organizations only if it has direct relevance to their chosen career path. While maintaining connections within your college is important, it's also necessary to branch out and develop skills outside what is taught within your major.
Whether one chooses to become a graphic designer, an engineer or a veterinarian, getting business-related experience in teamwork, branding and financial planning will provide competitive advantage and help with entrepreneurial and professional ventures. By becoming a part of one of the many business-related groups on campus, you will learn applicable skills for any sector. There are many opportunities open to students at Cal Poly that can easily be taken advantage of. Here are some first steps students can take now to take on the professional world.
Joining the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship to learn more about developing and marketing your own product, participating in school-hosted Hackathons to learn about teamwork and launching an idea, and attending the annual DHF conference hosted by WIB, which focuses on providing a major-diverse atmosphere to learn leadership skills and build self-confidence both within the business realm and beyond. All of these opportunities will be a perfect place to start if you want to build meaningful skills and expand your network outside your department.
The Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
What do they do?
The Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) supports students and the greater Cal Poly community to acquire the tools, skills, and mindset of an entrepreneur. The CIE is equipping young entrepreneurs to create their own economic and social value in the world.
Who’s involved and how do I join?
Don’t know the first thing about ‘business’? Great! The CIE is centered around a global entrepreneurial mindset -- one that expands across all majors at Cal Poly. Students can get involved with a variety of different programs of the CIE including Cal Poly Entrepreneurs and the Hatchery. One can simply email Jose Huitron for more information on CIE or join the CIE mailing list to hear about further opportunities! In addition, one can also check the CIE website within the Events to stay up to date on upcoming programming.
Contacts for those programs include Jose A. Huitron (Director of Student Innovation Programs), Kalen Goo & Arman Avedian (Cal Poly Entrepreneurs). For more info, see https://cie.calpoly.edu/.
How does it apply?
The CIE is accelerating the dreams of Cal Poly’s boldest and brightest. The CIE unique is due to its varying level of involvement, and diverse collaboration. Cal Poly students, graduates and seasoned entrepreneurs have the opportunity to work together and foster long lasting connections. Above all, the CIE has impacted the future professional careers of Cal Poly students. Students who have interests beyond their prescribed coursework will find that the CIE helps them to forge their own unique path.
Jose Huitron, Director of Student Innovation Programs, shares about the steps to take to find that path. "The Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship is a springboard of awesome activity and resources helping creators, innovators, and entrepreneurs explore what's possible through the lens of entrepreneurship. No matter the journey or area of interest, there are exciting engagement opportunities to learn, prepare, and launch viable ideas that have the potential to change the world,” Jose explains.
Kalen Goo, President of Cal Poly Entrepreneurs also shares on his experience with CIE. Kalen comments, "Cal Poly Entrepreneurs has always been more than just a place to form your own company. We strive to promote the entrepreneurial mindset, foster interdisciplinary connections, and create a community filled with passionate individuals ready to change the world.”
Join a Hackathon
What do they do?
A hackathon is an event where students of all different backgrounds across the nation come together to build projects or solve problems over 72 hours. Students collaborate in small teams to create and pitch a product, design, app, or website. The possibilities are endless and students often have the flexibility to create or design anything they want using any technology they want. At the end, projects may be judged and awarded based on their innovation and perceived impact on the community.
Who’s involved and how do I join?
Students of all majors and backgrounds who have an interest in entrepreneurship, business, design, technology, or computer science are encouraged to attend. SLO Hacks has an introductory hackathon during the Fall quarter. The main hackathon takes place during the Winter or Spring quarter. Applications to register for SLO Hacks typically open a few weeks before each hackathon takes place and are posted on their website.
Contacts for those programs include Foaad Khosmood (SLO Hacks Faculty Advisor) & Ivy Tan (SLO Hacks Design Director). For more info, visit https://www.slohacks.com/ or follow them on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/slo_hacks/.
How does it apply?
Hackathons are events truly centered around learning, creating, and having fun. Although they may sound intimidating at first, anyone can join. You don’t have to have any prior experience with coding to participate.
Jessica Luo, a Third-year Chemistry major, attended her first hackathon, SLO Hacks, as a freshman. She was initially curious about coding and thought a hackathon would be the perfect environment for her to learn. She now strongly encourages students of different majors, backgrounds, or experiences to join and learn. “Although the event is centered around a few grand prizes, the inclusion of workshops, speakers from the tech industry, the opportunity to network and find new friends are all great incentives to join. And of course, there’s also free food and swag, “Jessica Luo said. Jessica eventually became more involved with SLO Hacks and became a Hacker Experience Organizer during her second year.
Lauren Yim, a Third Year Business major, is currently the Sponsorship Coordinator for SLO Hacks. Lauren says that student-formed teams are generally very diverse and can include programmers/engineers who build the projects, designers who create the logos, and people who do the business pitch. Everyone works together in teams and to finish their projects within 72 hours. “Being able to collaborate and being able to work under pressure are important skills that students of all backgrounds can gain from attending a hackathon” Lauren said.
Defining Her Future
How does it apply?
After an unpredictable and difficult year for both students and professionals alike, ‘courage’ emerged as this year’s theme. DHF focused on preparing attendees to find the courage to step out of their comfort zone when figuring out how to positively market yourself in the ever-changing workforce. Courage can be applied to any aspect of your life, and learning to push yourself to try new potential interests is applicable to all majors and career paths. Even though DHF has its roots in OCOB, students from all colleges can benefit from learning how to build the courage and confidence to network with professionals.
Kennedy Higgs, a third-year Parks, Recreation, and Tourism major, joined DHF’s catering and facilities committee as a second year in 2019 and was welcomed with open arms into the DHF team as someone who is not part of OCOB. Kennedy says that she was excited to see how the conference was expanding to market to more non-business-focused majors and loved hearing the speakers from this past year’s conference because they were not focused on business specifically but more around topics such as how to be an advocate for women and marginalized groups Building confidence and having the courage to speak up for yourself in the workplace and life in general is sometimes uncomfortable, but possessing the ability to step outside of your comfort zone is such a valuable skill in life.
DHF is always held in March/April and those who want to be involved in the planning should look out for applications that will come out in December/January.
For more information, please go to http://cpwomeninbusiness.com/dhf
There are various ways to get involved in clubs and events that are outside of one's major, specifically within the business realm. One can join the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, participate in a school-hosted Hackathon, and/ or become a member of Women In Business (or joining DHF).
Business involvements provide a space in which to not only be creative but also to build meaningful skills and expand your network. You’ll delve into your interests while gaining various support systems on campus by being involved with the following programs. There is no better feeling than seeing familiar faces around campus as you truly integrate yourself into the Cal Poly community.
Socializing with like-minded individuals can potentially lead to learning more than you would your schoolwork. Learn more about yourself, your community, and the business realm by ‘learning by doing’ and take that first step into campus involvement.
The WIBassadors are a group of student representatives from each college on campus, focused on spreading information and encouraging engagement within the Women in Business club or other business-related programming. The WIBassadors team includes Mackenzie Henderson (Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering), Izzy Ryan (Environmental Management, College of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Sciences), Jessica Beth Corr (Architecture, College of Architecture and Environmental Design), Karen Liu (Statistics, College of Science and Math) and Kaitlin Van (Communication Studies, College of Liberal Arts).