She means business: Women in Business club growing

BY HELENA KNUTSON

Marketing Executive

As the new semester starts, Tarleton State University students can look forward to becoming more involved on campus by joining organizations, one of which is Women in Business [WIB].

Women in Business is a Tarleton organization that was introduced last March. The club allows women of all majors to come together to improve their marketing, networking and business skills.

“We all just have an interest in business, and we try to put a huge focus on networking and just pushing each other to be better within our classes,” Grace Killian, junior human resource management major, co-founder and President of WIB, said. 

“We all pretty much help each other within all of our classes,” Killian said. “A lot of us have similar schedules. So you'll almost always have a friend in your classes if you're in Women in Business, which is really cool.”

Last spring, Killian brought up the idea of creating a Women in Business Club at Tarleton after seeing how many other schools had one.

“I wanted to go to Baylor originally, and I've been keeping up with their Women in Business for a long time,” Killian said. “I was keeping up with their events, and (when) I came to Tarleton… I expected to find Women in Business. I searched and searched and searched, and it wasn't on there, so I asked one of my teachers about it, and she was surprised, too, that it hadn't become a thing yet. So, I was like, ‘You know what, we're gonna make this happen today.’”

However, Killian wasn't the only one interested in starting up this organization. Sophie Gambill, a junior marketing major, also noticed other schools had started up a Women in Business Club and wanted to help bring that same club to Tarleton.

“[Killian] came to me and was like, ‘Have you heard of this organization called Women in Business?’ She was going to go to Baylor, and I was looking at larger schools before Tarleton as well,” Gambill, vice president and co-founder of WIB, said. “We sat down and talked about it and really just planned everything out. It was really just wherever she needed my help, I helped her – whether it be talking to people, reading bylaws and just things like that to get it up and running.”

Since then, Women in Business has been working hard to get their name out there and reach more students, but it hasn't been easy. 

“Just in the College of Business in general, it's just a lack of people wanting to get involved,” Killian said. “So we've been trying to do some incentives recently. We added how the pledges do pledge points… If you come to tablings, if you come to meetings, if you go to our events, you'll get a certain amount of points for each kind of thing that you go to and we'll keep track of those.”

These types of incentives not only helps students get involved initially, but keeps them wanting to come back for more. 

 “It's been our biggest struggle getting people to want to stay involved because we'll see people come to one or two meetings at the beginning and then school gets everyone into the swing of school,” Killian said. “Then it's just kind of like, ‘If I'm going to give time to anything it's going to be school,’ and then a lot of people have jobs, too. So it's just a lot of different conflicts, but we really try to work with everybody's schedule.”

However, through this conflict, WIB managed to prevail and create fun activities and marketing strategies to reach prospective members. One of which is Alyana Liles, a junior general business major, who recently transferred to Tarleton from the University of Mary Hardin Baylor.

“Right now from what I've seen, most of my classes have been male dominated,” Liles said. “My human resources class is mostly female, but all the other ones I'm taking are male. I think WIB would really help me get a different perspective on what I could do with my major and really just assert myself in the business world.”

One of the ways Women in Business has been working to promote themselves is by providing feminine hygiene products in the bathroom of the business building and hosting events, one of which was their “chick flicks and PJ pics.”

“We did that (chick flicks and PJ pics) last semester, and we really networked for it,” Gambill said. “We talked to different fraternities, sororities and businesswomen… We saw ‘Legally Blonde’ one and two, and we just told all the girls, ‘Hey, this is a good way to come out and meet friends if you're new on campus,’ and people perceived it really well, and we had a really good turnout,” Gambill said.

This club, along with growing networking and marketing skills, has created a place for these women to find sisterhood and friendship.

“When we started Women in Business, it was the first time at Tarleton that I had found my community of girls,” Gambill said.

If you or anyone you know is interested in finding that type of sisterhood community, WIB will be holding its next meeting on Feb. 14. You can find more information through Texan Sync or their Instagram @tareltonwib.