Zicklin Women in Business Win Student Organization of the Month

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.”

The graduate Zicklin Women in Business club (ZWiB) was the first recipient of the Student Organization of the Month distinction. The GCMC sat down with the club’s Executive Board members Helen Huang (MSStatistics), Chenlu Muliu (MS Accountancy) and Pooja Mundhra (MS Accountancy) to talk about what this meant for their club.

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.