Student Spotlight: Women in Business to travel to Google

Sandy Wu is the president of the Women in Business (WIB) club and, through her leadership role, she hopes to make more companies aware of the quality business students who graduate from RIT. Wu and the other officers in WIB plan to travel to the Silicon Valley and San Francisco area to visit companies, including Google, from Feb. 20 to Feb. 24. There, they will be able to network and learn more about the culture of the companies and how they are run.

Women in Business provides opportunities to advance professional and personal development for women working in business disciplines. Wu, a third-year management information systems major from Chicago, joined WIB the second semester of the club’s existence. During her first year, she served as secretary of the club, and, since then, she has served as the club’s president.

In addition to being president of WIB, Wu tries to stay as involved as possible with other clubs on campus. She is currently president of the Asian Culture Society, the business manager at Reporter magazine and she was the student government women’s senator during the last academic year.

For more information about how to get involved with the Women in Business club, email members at womeninbusiness.rit@gmail.com.

Question: Why did you decide to join the Women in Business club?

Answer: I saw the organization tabling at the club fair during orientation and I thought that it would be fun to join. I wanted to make sure that I joined at least one professional organization on campus to learn more about the business world and networking. Women in Business stuck out to me the most because I thought that there is so much potential for this organization to thrive. When I was in high school, I did a lot with advocating for the Asian-American communities and I thought that WIB was one of the perfect organizations that would allow me to do more for the community.

Question: How did you get the opportunity to travel to Google headquarters?

Answer: I was talking with Maria Richart, the director of Co-op and Career Services, about networking opportunities when she came in as a guest for one of our networking workshops. I was worried about getting a full-time position and she was encouraging me to network as much as possible. She asked me which companies I was interested in working at and Google popped up because I really respect the way they train product managers. She told me that she knew a recent graduate who would love to network with us and everything just fell into place from there.

Question: What type of activities will you do while you’re there?

Answer: We plan to tour different companies, network with employees and learn more about the lifestyle and company culture in the Silicon Valley and San Francisco areas.

Question: What are you hoping to get out of the trip?

Answer: I am very interested in networking and getting to learn about the different work cultures on the West Coast. I also want the companies to become more aware of WIB and RIT in general, and hope that Silicon Valley companies will take a larger interest in Saunders College of Business. RIT is well-known for students in Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences, and many companies from Silicon Valley come to RIT to hire those students. I think that Saunders students have a lot of potential that companies should tap into while they are networking at RIT. I think that everyone in Saunders deserves the spotlight from Silicon Valley and other technical districts as well.

Question: Why do you think it’s important for business majors to talk to people already working in a professional business setting?

Answer:  I think that business is very similar to learning a new language—you can learn from a textbook, but to have maximum growth in the area, you must interact with it in a natural setting. The world of business is full of so many different personalities that interacting with other professionals can inspire someone to go toward a completely different career path than expected. Getting to meet more people in a professional setting can also improve one’s communication and networking skills.

Question: Do you think WIB will go on more trips like this in the future?

Answer:  Absolutely. I think having an annual networking trip would be excellent for the organization. I am really hoping that this networking trip will create more opportunities for Women in Business. The current organization is full of students with so much potential and I want the best for every one of them. Everyone is so passionate about what they do, and it makes me proud to represent such an organization. I want to encourage those who are not confident in themselves and help them realize that they can achieve pretty much anything if they work hard. I mean, I would never have imagined planning this trip in my entire college career, but here we are!

Question: How can students get involved with WIB?

Answer:  You can message us on our email, our Facebook group or Campus Groups page. Our general meetings are every other Monday at 4 p.m. in the Lowenthal building, room 1105. There are no requirements to be a member, just come to the meetings and events that we host. Many people misunderstand our group and think that Women in Business is solely an organization for women pursuing a business degree. However, that is very inaccurate. One of our past vice presidents was actually a mechanical engineer, there is room for everyone. It is incredibly important for us to work for equality amongst all genders in every workplace. For that, we need to work together with all genders and all majors. We do a lot of professional development and personal growth workshops and the topics can be applicable to everyone.