Marketing Management major, Ashlin Webster took a chance on the small, newly-founded organization, Collegiate Women in Business (CWIB) at the beginning of her freshman year and never looked back. Now, almost halfway through her senior year and currently holding CWIB’s Co-CEO position, she reflects on her time in the organization and how it has helped her professionally and personally.
“When I came to school as a freshman, I wanted to get involved in something business-related. I heard about this thing that one of my teachers brought up in class, Collegiate Women in Business, and decided to come to their very first meeting. I showed up and there were maybe 30 girls there,” Ashlin said of one of her first experiences with CWIB. “I saw them as inspiring and I wanted to do something like they were doing at Virginia Tech. I wanted to help make an organization.”
Ashlin describes her early involvement in CWIB leadership as a slow process.
“I got involved slowly but surely over time. It took until I was a sophomore to actually get a leadership position in CWIB,” Ashlin said.
Self-stated keys to Ashlin’s success in CWIB leadership was expanding upon the role of certain leadership positions and not being afraid to say ‘Yes.’
“I was always making more out of the position I was in than what the position was when I started in it because CWIB was so new,” Ashlin stated. “The reason I stepped up to higher positions was because someone asked me to take over their position when they were going away. It was because someone trusted me enough to see me in a lower position and say ‘Hey I’m going abroad or I’m taking a semester off to work. Will you take this higher-level position? I always said yes and was always willing to do it even though I didn’t know how.”
For Ashlin, the decision to run for the position of Co-CEO of CWIB for her senior year was difficult at first, but ultimately felt like a natural next step. Ashlin emphasizes the importance of teamwork, both with her co-CEO and with those under her who will eventually take her place.
“I decided that I wanted to run, but I was also scared and I didn’t want to do it alone. That’s when I realized I knew someone else who wanted to run, so I asked if she would want to do it together. I think it’s always good to be flexible and to see a need like that. So, that’s how I became the CEO,” Ashlin continued. “The thing about being a CEO is that I’m already training people under me to do what I do because my job should be, if I’m doing it right, making sure that after I graduate, everyone knows what I do and someone can take my place.”
As an early member of CWIB, Ashlin can truly see the ways that the organization has grown and changed.
“Over time we grew from that initial 30 members to now having 160 members at any given meeting,” Ashlin said. “I think CWIB has changed because, with growth, we’ve been given so many new opportunities. You think about going from having a contact base of only five people who created an idea to their idea now impacting hundreds of people in three years.”
Ashlin’s best advice for new members of CWIB is to take advantage of the opportunities that the club presents.
“CWIB is a lot like classes; it’s like anything in life. You have to be creative and be willing to put stuff in if you want to get anything out of it. As far as professional growth, utilize the opportunities you’re given,” Ashlin said. “Also, in the organization itself, think of what you could do to make it stronger and what your skillset might be. Make sure you’re contributing something to make yourself more proud to be a part of the organization.”
A major takeaway that Ashlin has had from her time in CWIB is a sense of confidence in herself. She hopes new members will be able to gain a similar sense of professional and self-confidence from their time in CWIB.
“We’re very lucky to have the great education we do, but I think the best way to go about any situation is completely empowered and not thinking there’s a difference between men and women in the workforce,” Ashlin said. “You need to have complete confidence in yourself; it doesn’t matter who you are. I think I can attribute a lot of those feelings to CWIB.”