A Leader for Success and Change

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For my four years at the University of Washington, I have participated in the student club UWiB (Undergraduate Women in Business). Our mission is to connect and prepare the next generation of female business leaders through weekly events including speakers from fortune 500 companies, mentorship programs, committees, philanthropy events, and networking nights. My first two years I was a member who attended any and every event that would fit in my calendar. I learned what it was like to be a woman in the business world, how to advocate for myself, how to stay resilient, and what a prefect resume looks like. These skills allowed to obtain the role of Director of External Relations during my third year where I coordinated out mentorship program, organized our committee meetings, and networked internally and externally for UWiB. Through the connections and skills I gained during my role in external relations, I was chosen to become President during my senior year. My role as President allows me to support our 12-member executive team, procure speakers from around Seattle and the country, handle logistics, and problem solve any situation that comes up.

Headshot for UWiB President, Spring 2018

1 in 20 CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies are women. For me, that is a too small of a percentage and I am working to change that. Through UWiB, I work to help undergraduate women build the skill they need to set themselves apart in the business world. I form personal relationships with members to understand their professional goals and how I can help them pursue them. A long-term goal of mine is to become a CEO of a Fortune 500 company and I am building the ground work skills I need to get there every day with UWiB.

Both my role as President and Director of External relations has provided me the ability to collaborate on changes and improvement within the organization. During my time as Director of External Relations, I revised our four committees (Philanthropy, Procurement, Marketing, and Student Relations) and their purpose within the club to provide members a more tangible take-away during their participation. As President, I revised our recruitment strategy in collaboration with our Director of Student Relations to have more tabling, flyers, and larger presence on campus. However, the task I am most proud of is finding our 2019 Woman of the Year. During my time in external relations, I attended a sports career fair at KeyArena where many local sports teams were looking to hire ambitious candidates like me but I wasn’t there for a job, I was there to network. As I waited in line at the Seattle Mariners booth, I crafted my intro perfectly to get the image of UWiB and myself across in a professional manner. When it was my turn to speak to the gentleman at the table, I was calm, cool, and collected. He was gracious enough to give me the name of a woman who he thought could play a great role in UWiB—Ingrid Russell-Narcisse. Fast forward 9 months later, a colleague and I were planning a Women in Sports panel for UWiB. I knew I needed to reach out to Ingrid and when I did, she graciously accepted the invite. She was amazing on the panel and really engaged with members even days after the event was over. Fast forward another 6 months when collaboration was happening to decide our 2019 Woman of the Year award, I quickly threw Ingrid’s name into the hat. As an exec team we voted, I spoke with Advancement, and Ingrid Russel-Narcisse became our 2019 Woman of the Year. Delivering the news to Ingrid was one of the most exciting and humbled days in my life. Seeing how my role as Director of External Relations fed into my role as President perfectly.

Official UWiB Logo

Mother and I at the 11th Annual Fundraiser

Competencies Gained

Confidence

Before entering the UW and UWiB, I did not have an ounce of confidence. I didn’t believe I could accomplish greatness, I was always comparing myself to others, and interviewing was the worst thing in the world. Through UWiB, I have developed more confidence that I ever could have imagined. Not to confuse confidence with ego, confidence to me is not being afraid to do something, asking for help when needed, putting myself up of opportunities I don’t I could get and being open minded to whatever life throws at me. I know I am successful and will continue to reach for my dreams, but I will do it all with full confidence that I know I can achieve them. I found taking small steps toward confidence helped me reach my full potential. Through speakers’ suggestions, for me, raising my hand to ask a dying question I had for a speaker was never a thing I did but I forced myself to speak up once every meeting and now it is natural. I never had the confidence early in my college career to raise my hand and ask a question in fear that is was already talked about or it didn’t make sense but having confidence to ask the burning question in my brain allowed me to face my fears.

When I don’t have someone, who looks like me working in a role I want, it is hard to think that is achievable for myself. The power of diversity is more than a statistic in a company. To me, it is a recruiting tool to help attract the best that there is. With our members, it is important for me to procure speakers of all races, ethnicities, and backgrounds to ensure those in our club can see themselves achieving success. Diversity of perspective amongst my executive team allows many angles and perspectives to be seen during planning of events, speakers, and recruitment. Without diversity, UWiB would not be where it is today under my leadership. I greatly value and appreciate diversity in my personal and professional life because I don’t want people thinking exactly like me. I want a challenge and skillfully thinking things through and diversity of people bring those to the table which contributes infinite ideas and opinions.

Diversity

Receiving Feedback

I am always wanting to improve myself as a leader, to be better, to lead better. As the President, I have internal feelings on how I am doing but many times they are off. In this role, I value the feedback my executive team and members give me about my leadership style. I got feedback at the beginning of the school year from my executive team that my communication style was too direct for many of them. I greatly appreciate my team giving me this feedback as I would not have known it was an issue on my own. This feedback allowed me to reflect on how my communication is with my team and adapt it to each of their preferred communication style. Due to the changes I made within myself, the executive team and I have a very open relationship where we are able to communicate constantly without fee of directness. As this is one of many experiences I have had with receiving feedback, I will forever be searching for what people think I am doing good and what could be improved. While I many never be perfect, I will die trying.

Nothing in my life has been predictable and that is exciting. I love having things thrown at me and having to sift through the pieces to come up with a solution. Problem solving for me is fun and being President of such a large organization has provided me any opportunities to practice that skill. From last minute speaker cancelation to no one signing up for a philanthropy event to an unexpected sickness in the executive team, problem solving is no stranger to me and I love it. The key to problem solving for me is to not panic but instead look and analyze all the information you have to make a quick decision on a direction to go. Everyone is looking at me to decide and I am adaptable to the pressure.

Problem Solving

Mentoring

From the first day I joined UWiB, I was introduced to this concept of mentoring. Having a mentor to work career things through along with personal things would help progress me in my career. I have been lucky enough to have had amazing mentors in my life where the relationship just naturally formed. When I became President, I knew something I wanted to do was mentor first-year students to provide them with the same opportunities I had. A member of UWiB and a student in a class I taught came to me about an opportunity that she had pursued but did not get. She had made it to the final round but got nervous during her presentation so I worked closely with her to work on her presentation skills so when she tried again, she would excel. I was also able to connect with the person in charge of the group she was recruiting with and put in a good word for her. In the end, she got accepted and it was a great day for both of us.

As a leader of a large organization, I play many more roles than the title I was chosen for. Some moments I am the President, some moments I am a friend or a shoulder to cry on or a motivator and a leader. I have to understand the roles I play in my everyday life related and unrelated to UWiB. Learning to be self-aware of my actions and making sure they are aligning with UWiB's mission is a powerful tool I get to take forward in my life. Being self-aware, to me, doesn't only mean being aware of the way I am feeling but the way others around me are feeling. I can tell when a member of my team is extremely motivated about a project and I can also tell when they are not motivated. Having self-awareness allows me to see those different behaviors in myself and others.

Self-Awareness

My experience in UWiB has provided me an opportunity to learn skills I wouldn’t have learned in a class. UWiB has taught me how to build confidence, how to advocate for myself and others, how to dress and write in a professional manner. These are soft skills that can’t be taught from a textbook but only by previous experience and advice. I will take these skills into my next leadership adventure and apply them in a new way. My path to becoming CEO will be finding jobs where problem solving is a daily occurrence where I have to be confident in my decision while including other diverse perspectives and then receiving feedback on how my decision played out.