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Semester in a Glance

Here’s a peak at our upcoming events.  Mark your calendars!

Insurance 101

Career Workshop Series

February 21, Monday

Gordie Lockbaum ’88, Vice President, The Sullivan Group

Gordie Lockbaum ’88, a Vice President at The Sullivan Group, will give a comprehensive overview of the many aspects of the world of insurance and discuss the varied career opportunities available within the field.  He’ll provide insight into the ins and outs of what the insurance industry really entails.

What’s better than learning about insurance and meeting a Crusader football legend?

What Is An Entrepreneur?

Career Workshop Series

March 16, Wednesday

Frank Hoy, Director, Collaborative for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Frank Hoy, a Prof. at WPI, is an internationally known authority on entrepreneurship. Hoy spent five years as chair of the Central European Small Business Enterprise Development Commission. His research and educational activities have been funded by more than $15 million in awards and contracts from the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Education, the U.S. Small Business Administration, and the Mott and Kauffman foundations, among other agencies and organizations. He is past chair of the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management and former senior vice president of the International Council of Small Businesses. (Excerpt from http://www.wpi.edu/news/20090/beswick.html)

This is bound to be an eye-opening look at entrepreneurship from a world-renowned speaker.  If you’ve ever been curious about what it means to be (or is like to be) an entrepreneur, don’t miss this workshop!

Summer Business Program Information Session

March 21, Monday

Come learn about the best way to spend your summer.  SBP is a unique opportunity to work with alumni and learn what it is really like to work in the business world!

Business Opportunities in Science

Career Workshop Series

March 22, Tuesday

Gail Evangeline Radcliffe ’78, President, Radcliffe Consulting

Gail Radcliffe assists biotech, medical device and diagnostic companies with technical, marketing, regulatory and business development issues. Her expertise allows her to aid companies in developing successful business strategies and obtaining funding.

If you are interested in careers that combine business and science then this is the workshop you’ve been waiting for! Learn how your science degree can pave the way for business careers.

Dinner Speaker Series

April 5, Tuesday

Sheila Cavanaugh ‘81, Senior Vice President, Fidelity Investments

Registration necessary: Contact the pre-business office

Ask anyone who has heard Sheila speak at the Women in Business conference, you do not want to miss this dinner!  Sheila is an unbelievable speaker, whose professional life and dedication to Holy Cross captivates and motivates her audience.  Anyone and everyone should attend, but space is limited so RSVP!

Hope to see you there!!

Kaithlyn

Kaithlyn Kayer
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

David Chu
Director, Entrepreneurial Studies & Pre-business Advisor
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Presentation is everything.

Disclaimer: This is the post where I shamelessly plug my new workshop, which happens to be on Monday night.

As Holy Cross students, you’ve been given a great foundation in presentation skills.  All of you write and speak very well.  You are a step ahead of the majority of your peers.  I’ve seen several of you brush elbows with some extremely powerful people and make comfortable, interesting, and (most importantly) educated conversation.  You have plenty to say and possess resumes that can open most doors. Give yourselves a hand—I was thoroughly impressed with the caliber of HC students when I started here in September.

Then I participated in the ELW interviews…

Don’t worry. I’m still impressed by your professionalism. But there is always room for improvement in your interview skills.

Here’s where my new workshop comes in.  After sitting through almost 60 interviews, I have started to see that most of you fall victim to filler words (like, um, uh) and nervous habits (tapping toes, twisting pens, playing with your hair—yes ladies, I am talking to you!) when speaking in public.  This workshop will address these issues and help make all of you more polished interviewers and presenters.

The details:

I’m offering a one-hour workshop in which a few volunteers will present three-minute talks and be critiqued by their peers and myself.

We’ll record each presentation so we can review point-by-point with each presenter.  All criticism will be constructive, but it will give you all a chance to really look at how you come across to a crowd and get some insight from others about how to up your game.

If this workshop is successful, I’ll offer a series of smaller workshops so everyone can have a chance to practice.  We can work on both presentation and interview skills.  Please don’t confuse this program with Career Planning’s mock interviews.  We are not working on content, only on form.  Your presentation can be on your love of Kraft macaroni & cheese—I don’t care. The plan is to flush out distracting movements and superfluous words that take away from the content of your presentation.

So mark your calendars: Monday, January 31 at 7 p.m. in Smith Labs 155.

If you want to volunteer to “go first,” send me an email or RSVP on our Facebook event page.

Since presentation is everything and practice makes perfect, I hope to see all of you there.

Kaithlyn

Kaithlyn Kayer
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

David Chu
Director, Entrepreneurial Studies & Pre-business Advisor
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New Semester, New Blog

So here’s the deal: You registered for the pre-business program because it seemed like a good idea.  It will look good on your resume and might help you get a job.  Now what?

Some of you have really taken advantage of the program.  I’ve seen several familiar faces at our workshops and Dinner Speaker Series, and that’s great.  Others have been participating for years, have completed ELW and SBP, and are now running the WIB conference; that’s even better!  However, the number of students participating in these events only makes up about 1/10 of our registered pre-business students.  Where are the rest of you?

I get it, really, I do.  The semester is busy.  You’ve got classes, sports, clubs, and jobs.  Adding one more hour-long event into the mix might actually break you (an obvious hyperbole, but I know the feeling).  Here’s the thing though, the pre-business events are here for your benefit. Holy Cross alums are commuting – by plane, train and automobile – to campus and taking time from their very busy schedules to help you.  And while all of their presentations are unique, they all highlight the same point — networking is key. So make it a resolution to try to come to a few more workshops this year.

It’s not fair of me to ask you guys to put in extra effort without expending some myself. I’ve made a resolution as well – to make use of social media.  Pre-business is going to join the 21st century through blogging and facebook! Now it will be easier to let all of you know what’s going on and quite frankly, what you are missing.

Here’s the plan:

-I’ll be posting a weekly blog to keep students up-to-date with what’s going on in the program and what you need to know about entering the business world.   We’ll cover interview skills, what recruiters suggest for HC students, programs that pre-business offers, tips for getting everything you can out of this program, and anything else that could possibly help you.  All you have to do is read and I promise to keep posts as concise as possible because, I repeat, I know you’re busy.

-Starting today, we are launching our facebook page! Make sure to “like ” us .  I’ll be creating a page for each event and updating the pre-business status with things you need to know.


Hopefully, this will allow me to cut back on the number of emails that fill your GroupWise inbox on a daily basis.  We’ll see how it goes.

So, welcome back to campus.  I hope you’ve enjoyed your nice, long break and are ready to hit the ground running.

Kaithlyn

Kaithlyn Kayer
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies

David Chu
Director, Entrepreneurial Studies & Pre-business Advisor