• Partnering with the Portage County young professionals group (Ignite) to offer a presentation by LinkedIn author/expert Wayne Breitbarth to an audience of local professionals and students. Ignite appreciated our help in providing a top-notch speaker for their members; we were grateful for Ignite’s assistance in reaching local professionals who shared valuable insights with our students. • Hosting “Exploring Careers in Banking” event. This new event was part networking reception and part panel discussion. Attendees included 15 industry representatives and 45 students. Students learned about banking careers and how SBE’s new Credit Analyst certificate can prepare them for careers in the financial-services industry. • Strengthening our Marshfield and Wausau programs by including branch-campus students in large live events at the Stevens Point campus. We provided transportation for branch-campus students from Marshfield and Wausau to attend the “Business and Society Lecture” by Bethany McLean and the “Kickstart Your Career!” keynote address by Colin Ryan. • Establishing the Pro Events Student Advisory Board. Student board members actively promote events among their classmates and provide feedback on various events they attend. The board typically meets twice a semester for a small-group dinner and conversation with a business guest and a faculty member. (Our final board meeting was cancelled due to COVID-19.) The student board members gain valuable connections as well as increased confidence in handling professional dining situations.
• In spring, students had an opportunity to tour the new headquarters of education software provider Skyward . • In both fall and spring, business-professionalism expert Lyn Hulgan reviewed the dos and don’ts of dining with colleagues, clients, etc. during our Etiquette Dinners. • From fall through spring, 53 students connected one-on-one with local alumni and business leaders through our innovative “Lunch with a Leader” program.
We also invested in sending students to workshops and professional-development programs, including Toastmasters, leadership certificate programs, Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) dinners, Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) luncheons and Portage County Business Council networking events. A handful of students received support to attend an IMA national conference and a SHRM state conference.
“Networking does not come naturally to me, so I really enjoyed being able to practice my networking with the Pro Events Advisory Board.” – Makenzie Wozniak
“Because of the opportunity to participate in Toastmasters, I have been able to work on my speaking skills, finish a second pathway and had the courage to speak in front of a large crowd at the C2C Center grand opening. Since I am graduating in just a few days, I am planning on joining a Toastmasters group where I live.” – Ludvika Gryskiewicz
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS Besides our many new initiatives during the past year, we also continued to strengthen popular ongoing programs. Our “Kickstart Your Career!” program is held near the start of each semester and encourages students “to start now to land their dream jobs.” We offered students many great “Kickstart” programs in 2019-20, such as: • In fall, we hosted the nationally-known speaker Colin Ryan , who presented his “Comedic Guide to Money” and attracted our largest crowd of 254 students. The event also served to publicize our Financial Coaching program. • In spring, LinkedIn author/expert Wayne Breitbarth not only presented a keynote presentation but also worked with students one-on-one to improve their profiles. The individual consults alone resulted in 16 of our students amassing a total of 2,027 LinkedIn connections.
2020-21 PLANS
The upcoming year will present challenges and opportunities. Our plans include: • Modifying the “Lunch with a Leader” program to include virtual lunches and more leaders, from both the local area and beyond. • Adapting the Pro Events Student Advisory Board to function in an online format. • Creating a library of recorded past events and an option for students to earn credit by watching and reporting on such videos. • Using online surveys to collect more feedback from students completing “Lunch with a Leader” and other one-on-one events. • Launching a book club, in conjunction with guest authors/presenters.
“Watching an hour-long lecture on LinkedIn provided me knowledge I never would have known otherwise. I learned about the built-in algorithm which allows businesses to easily comb through our profiles. By learning this, I was able to tweak my profile, making it so I get more notifications about job offers.” –Donovan Schroeder
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Anderson Classroom to Career Center
Annual Report 2019-2020
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