Strome Students Take the Lead

It all started with an email from Carrie Smith, President of PSE inquiring if clubs in the Strome College of Business would be interested in partnering together in a joint Sales, Marketing and Management Week. From there, officers with PSE began to collaborate with other student leaders with AMA Strome Marketers, BNAL Club, Delta Sigma Pi, and Enactus.

The organizations pulled together five separate events along with a drive to directly benefit students in need in Strome College, at a time when their fellow students needed it most. Throughout the course of the week, more than 150 students participated in the various events that featured alumni from throughout the college. Students also shared their internship experiences as well as an opportunity for students to engage in a fun and challenging Kahoot.

"We were all struggling to stay connected. I saw this collaboration as an opportunity to get our name out there and get people to notice us, so they would in turn join," said Smith. "I wanted to do something in the College that hadn't been done before where orgs came together. This way we could combine our resources, have different speakers and have a good time, collectively."

Smith said by collaborating, the student leaders learned a lot along the way. The collaboration led to larger attendance at the events overall through partnership and with the support of several faculty that offered extra credit.

Teresa Nguyen, President of the BNAL Club, agreed and added, "We learned how to drive multiple audiences from different organizations together in one event. We want to do more collaborations like this in the future. We learned so much from the other organizations, in figuring out how to develop the professionalism of the organization. It was a good collaborative effort." BNAL Public Relations Lead Annalisa Negri said she really enjoyed how those that participated in the event were more open to discussion their experiences during a pandemic that changed their lives. Smith and Negri said the process was not without challenges - the groups had to be more patient, and be willing to be flexible with the additional challenges of the pandemic.

"Recruiting has been especially tricky within the past year, especially as COVID spread and organizations had to transfer their activities online," said Bolu Adeoye, President of the AMA Strome Marketers. "A lot of organizations found it difficult for them to reach their members let alone recruit new members." Bolu said technology helped provide solutions for this challenge. The club made a welcome video for new members along with a second follow up video in the fall to further assist with recruitment. AMA Strome Marketers Sara Fox targeted Business 110 students and looked for additional ways to encourage collaboration and engagement within the club. "I thought the students that had the most disadvantage with the move online, were the freshmen," said Fox. Fox said her reflection of how the AMA helped her when she was an underclassman, prompted her to visit multiple classes in the college and tell them about how the AMA and other clubs could help them too, more now than ever.

The clubs partnered on several events for the spring including a Cover Letter Workshop, Senior Share showcasing Resumes and LinkedIn Profiles, and an Alumni Panel Discussion. The student leaders said it was exciting to see this take place and believe it will make all of them stronger in the fall. Their advice - work together - everyone can benefit from partnering and teamwork.

Several of the student org leaders were recognized for their contributions to Student Success at ODU's Student Engagement & Enrollment Services (SEES) 2021 Leadership Awards Program. Those recognized included: