The Booth Experience sat down with the co-chairs of Chicago Women in Business (CWiB) to learn more about this popular student club.
What is CWiB?
CWiB stands for Chicago Women in Business. We are a student organization that works to advance professional opportunities and cultivate a supportive community for women. CWiB also actively promotes an attitude of inclusivity and seeks to inspire future business leaders. We form our activities around four main pillars – professional development, social, recruiting, and inclusion.
What type of professional development events does CWiB host?
This year, we featured opportunities to sharpen specialized skills, such as a negotiations through a workshop with Professor Linda Ginzel. We also had a distinguished speaker series of fireside chats with local entrepreneurs like co-founder of the Barre Code Jillian Lorenz and author of the New York Times bestseller Financially Fearless, Alexa von Tobel.
Does CWiB have social events too?
CWiB hosts many social events throughout the year as a great way for women at Booth to get to know each other better. This included a variety of community-building activities, from an evening of wine and painting at Bottles and Bottega with CWiB Circles (a small group of first and second-years) to a career-focused fashion presentation at Banana Republic to a football brunch to the traditional and much-loved quarterly social.
What does CWiB do to help with recruiting?
The keynote recruiting event, the CWiB Fall Conference, was another great success, with 60 sponsors from 25 companies and over 100 students in attendance. Vilma Chan, ’99, Chicago Market Diversity Leader from PwC and Liz Tilatti, ’13, CEO & Founder of ZipFit Denim, gave the keynote addresses, each in line with the conference’s theme of “Dare To”, with panel breakout sessions “Overcome”, “Be Heard”, “Seek Diverse Guidance”, & “Reinvent.” The takeaway? Always be uncomfortable; identify your strengths; be open to feedback; and ask for help, promotions, and the things you want.
What does CWiB do to promote inclusion on campus?
CWiB has been busy rolling out inclusion events, which contribute to CWiB’s mission to actively promote an attitude of inclusivity and inspire future business leaders. Just a few weeks ago, CWiB launched the Common Chromosome – a new platform that offers everyone (men, women; faculty, staff, students) in the Booth community the opportunity to participate in the gender parity movement. Many men, faculty, and staff have asked CWiB how they can be part of this dialogue, and CWiB is excited to offer the Common Chromosome a channel for all to get involved. This comes on the heels of thought leaders such as Anne-Marie Slaughter calling for all to be involved in the gender equality discussion.
Interested in learning more about CWiB?
Booth Women Connect Week, an annual week-long series of events and interactions about gender topics that impact all current and future business leaders, is April 10-15, 2016. Events are held in cities throughout the U.S. and are open to everyone (not just current Booth students). Check out this website for more details on the events being held that week.
