When the Bowdoin Women in Business Club (BWIB) put together its upcoming convention, it certainly meant business.
The convention will take place on Saturday, March 31 from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. in Main Lounge, Moulton Union, with informational interviews and résumé critiques from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. at the Career Planning Center.
With this convention, BWIB seeks to help female students prepare for careers by providing an opportunity for "networking, career preparation, and [learning about] challenges real people face," said BWIB Co-President Haley Bridger '07.
The convention will welcome approximately 20 guests, many of whom are Bowdoin alumnae. They will interact with students in a small and intimate atmosphere and explain how their college education influenced their later careers.
Notable guests include Crystal Canney, who is the communications director for Maine Governor John Baldacci; Dr. Michele G. Cyr '76, associate dean for women in medicine at Brown Medical School; and Mary Herman, a member of the Board of Directors for Safe Passage and former first lady of Maine.
The Convention attempts to address students' concerns about how their Bowdoin education will mesh with their post-Bowdoin careers.
"Students are necessarily focused on academics, and taking time out to read about career options doesn't seem practical," said Director of the Career Planning Center Anne Shields. "Often, the best way to learn is to talk with other people who have pursued the interests that you share with them."
This year's convention will focus on two often-neglected areas of business: communications and non-profits.
"We wanted to give students the opportunity to get information about other fields, and also to allow those students not interested in banking to pursue their interests," said BWIB Vice President Charlotte Hitch '09.
BWIB has received a great deal of support for its convention from all sides, including an overwhelming alumnae response, as well as on-campus encouragement from organizations including the Career Planning Center, the Women's Resource Center, and also from Karen Mills, President Barry Mills's wife, who chairs Governor Baldacci's Council on Jobs, Innovation, and the Economy.
"So many alumnae expressed the wish to come this year. It's been very positive," said Bridger.
BWIB intends to lay the groundwork for the convention to be enlarged in the future, and hopes that it will become an annual event, as originally proposed by Cindy Kim '06.
"One key to this program growing and becoming a real tradition will be the continued involvement of a wide range of students by interest and class year," said Shields.