Women In Business (WIB) hosted Seton Hall’s first-ever WomenCON on Feb. 6 at Bethany Hall, hosting other women-led student organizations and featuring faculty panelists.
Shaylah Rivas, current president of WIB, said that including other women-led student organizations showcases “a lot of diversity within our own population.”
WomenCON “helps them market themselves,” added Rivas, a double-major in accounting and finance and in the 4+1 accounting program.
The event started off with a mini-Involvement Fair, in which attendees had the opportunity to meet and speak with the student leaders of the organizations WIB, Student Government Association, PeriodSHU, Mind Over Matter, H.A.I.R., Women In STEM, National Council of Negro Women, Seton Hall’s chapter of The Women’s Network and Women of Diplomacy.
Takeema LaVal, the current secretary of NCNW, said it was “good to bring the female organizations together” and that prior to the event, she didn’t know about some of them.
After the mini-Involvement Fair, there was time set aside for food and socializing before the panel event, which featured three faculty panelists in which the advisor of WIB, finance professor Jennifer Itzkowitz, described them as a “diverse set of successful female professors.”
The panelists were Mary Balkun, professor and director of Faculty Development in the University’s English department, Sona Patel, associate professor at Department of Speech – Language Pathology and Karen Boroff, professor of management and Dean Emeritus in the Department of Management.
Other members of WIB’s executive board sat down with the three women to ask them questions related to women in leadership and working in male-dominated industries.
Balkun said that although she has lots of leadership roles, she doesn’t think of herself as a natural leader. “If you do a bunch of work,” she said, “people are going to want to put you in charge of things.”
Despite this, she advised the female-dominated audience to “be braver than you think you are.”
Boroff advised the attendees to “just get the job done, don’t worry about who gets the credit.”
“Be attentive to the calling that beckons you at every turn,” she added.
Emma Thumann is the Setonian’s editor-in-chief and a writer for its News section. She can be reached at emma.thumann@student.shu.edu.
