College of Business students mix and mingle

Students and faculty gathered at the Wabash building for free food, discussion and activities at the Heller College of Business Mixer last Wednesday.

Nearly 20 members of the Roosevelt community mingled near tables filled with chips, beverages, Giordano’s pizza - even a raffle to win personalized Roosevelt business cards.

However, the main focus was networking with professors and peers.

“Business students have to learn how to network, so this is an opportunity for them to learn a very important skill for their future,” Dean of the Heller College of Business Terri Friel said. “Also, we really want to create the feeling of community.”

Friel said one of the goals in hosting the event in the Wabash building was to attract freshman and new students down from their dorm rooms. However, the majority of attendees were upperclassmen.

Friel said that many first year students are shy and might not understand the value of networking at these kinds of events. She said she made it a point to engage all of the students in attendance.

“I’m not going to leave anybody standing around feeling awkward,” she said. “I’m going to try to help them to make a connection and give them the encouragement to build a network.”

Senior accounting major Lee Matthews is a Roosevelt senior accounting major. He said he was drawn to the mixer to get know and connect with his professors.

“They’re the ones instructing us, so if you can make that connection not only inside the classroom but outside the classroom, it can only mean greater success for students,” he said.

Students engaged with one another, sharing pizza and laughs at the hourlong event. Creating a vibrant sense of community was one of Friel’s objectives for the night after moving from the Gage building where she said things were more detached.

The mixer also gave students a chance to meet other scholars who share similar interests and majors.

“It’s good for me to meet other fellow accounting students or business majors because I have been in general courses [with them], and I don’t know who’s majoring in accounting, so I can make connections that way,” third year accounting major Tameka Honeycutt said.

Don Hoppa, an accounting professor, circled the floor speaking to students and even offered tours of the different classrooms, offices and resources on the 12th floor.

Hoppa stressed that mixers allow students to meet and interact with certain professors who teach courses in their major but who may have never had a classroom experience with them.

Among highlighting the importance of interacting in an environment outside of the classroom, business students were able to sharpen their networking skills and forge some new friendships in the process.

Friel discussed the importance of meeting new people and how those connections can help students in the future.

“Those friendships can be extremely close and very valuable to their future career opportunities,” she said.

Did you attend the mixer? Tweet and tell us your favorite moments at @RUTORCH