Saint Anselm’s Center for Ethics in Society and the Women in Business Club hosted a discussion panel about “launching your career”. The event took place on March 1 at the Dana Center. Panelists highlighted their personal business endeavors to guide students in the importance of starting strong. For the first session in the Women of Influence series, students were invited to a networking session following the discussion. Women in Business Club President, Kim Tran, attended the panel and spoke to the Crier about her reaction to the discussion.

         The Women of Influence three-part series began with their first panel relating to women’s success in business and government. The first session on March 1 featured 3 speakers: Mackenzie Fraser, Ashley Oberg, and Latonya Wallace. “The event was moderated by Dina Frutos-Bencze who is an Associate Professor of International Business at Saint A’s,” Tran said, and she is “also one of our club advisors”.

         Mackenzie Fraser works for EVA Advertising, Ashley Oberg works for York IE, and Latonya Wallace works for NH Community Loan Fund. All three qualified women took the panel and led the discussion to inform young college students about “the challenges and opportunities in getting started in your career,” Tran said. As a panel discussion, students were able to receive advice and information from qualified women in business and ask the questions they wanted to know about getting started in their careers after college.

         Alongside discussing business advice, the panel speakers “discussed gender disparities throughout their journey and how they handled these issues,” Tran said. With a club and society focused on breaking down gender barriers, this topic served as a helpful aid for students regarding their future roles in their career.

         Including women in the business world starts before women enter the workforce, so “the panelists also helped students learn ways in which they can include women in the classroom so that this translates into the workplace,” Tran said. Including women early aids their transition into the workforce “by including them in conversations such as group projects or classroom engagement and amplifying their achievements whether it was big or small,” Tran said. By welcoming women and celebrating their achievements in the classroom, they gain the confidence to move forward when they enter their different career roles.

         If you didn’t get a chance to attend the panel, Tran provided excellent insight with her opinions of the discussion. Tran said that she “enjoyed the event because the panelists discussed the different paths that they went through to get to where they are”. With varying backgrounds and journeys, students can gauge the possibilities that they themselves may encounter.

         By providing varying experiences, it “is applicable to the college student target audience” Tran said, “because we are constantly worried about figuring out what we want to do and planning out a clear path to achieve it”. In hearing the experiences of several professional women, students can relieve some of their worries knowing that they are all on their own individual paths. “The panelists did a great job to reassure students to trust the process because there will always be something waiting ahead,” Tran said. Whatever your majors and whatever your goals are, there is something waiting out there for everyone.

         Though the panel provided insight and networking to women in the business world, the event as a whole “accomplished spreading awareness of gender disparities as well as reassuring students to trust the process while they begin their journey in whatever industry they are striving for,” Tran said. Considering gender disparities remain a common conflict that women face in the professional world, it is refreshing that students got to hear that it is possible to push past them.

         With the Center of Ethics utilizing the Women in Business club as an advertising tool, they “were able to reach out to the students of UNH Manchester, SNHU, and Merrimack College to attend this event and future events in the series,” Tran said. The resources provided made the event larger scale, reaching out to students from varying colleges and communities, which was essential to giving “students networking opportunities,” Tran said. Networking is an essential part of entering the workforce, and the panel provided students with a multitude of opportunities.

         If you didn’t get a chance to attend this panel, don’t worry, the next one will be held March 15, with a panel on April 19 to finish the series. It is important to address the obstacles that women face in the business world to prepare them for their futures, and these panelists are aiming to do exactly that.