This March,
Baruch’s Office of Student Life started a new Student Organization of the Month initiative to recognize the
work of student organizations at Baruch College. From the Office of Student
Life:
“Student Organizations are the centerpiece of student
life at Baruch College. They provide students with a community, a place to grow
personally and professionally, a chance to advocate and implement change, and a
way to give back to the local and global community through service. Each month,
the Office of Student Life features a student organization to recognize what
the organization and its members have accomplished and contributed to the
Baruch community.”
In their application for the award, there were two
specific activities that the leadership felt were most important to highlight.
The first was a focus on building community among their membership, and the
second was realizing how much collaboration could do.
For example, instead of running out of the gate in the
spring semester to produce events right away, ZWiB took an opportunity to do
leadership and team-building activities for their members. They felt that
larger graduate clubs like the Accounting-focused ones had more manpower and
structure year over year to effectively operate on the high level that they do,
whereas smaller clubs like ZWiB oftentimes do not for myriad reasons. By
focusing first on building community among members, the club could then execute
events effectively as a team down the line.
Collaborating with other clubs and organizations was
also a key component to having a successful spring semester. In just two
months, ZWiB partnered on different initiatives with over 5 other clubs at
Baruch, including undergraduate and graduate clubs - as well as the GSA. This
allowed them to serve their own members and to more effectively spend time to
help make events event better.
As part of being named Student Organization of the
Month, the Executive Board had the opportunity to sit down with
Dean Art King,
Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students, with whom
they were able to have a deep discussion on the importance of leadership in
everything one does.
Looking at the experience they’ve had as Executive Board
members, Chenlu, Helen and Pooja also shared what they’ve personally learned as
club leaders.
Chenlu shared that ZWiB’s members are rich in diversity
from background and nationality, to professional experience and age. This is
one of ZWiB’s strengths when compared to other clubs. Learning how to
effectively communicate with a diverse background of people to make them feel
heard and empower them to contribute has been the biggest lesson for her.
Helen recalled co-moderating a panel event early in the
semester, which was a new experience for her. By partnering with another club
that had experience moderating panels, she was able to learn what it took to be
an effective moderator. Shortly after, she then moderated a panel on her own.
That experience allowed her to not only develop new skills she had not had
before, but it also had other impact on her, such as getting to know more
students on campus and increasing her sense of confidence.
Pooja commented that all Zicklin graduate students, no
matter their professional background or when they graduated from undergrad,
have experiences they can bring to any situation – from organizing club events
to communicating with professionals in effective ways. Each student at Zicklin
has something to contribute, and it has been an education-in-action to see how
much she and other students can do when they get into a mindset of thinking of
solutions and taking action.
Congratulations to ZWiB on their recognition, and to all
the work Zicklin graduate student organizations do every day.
