CWIB at the Athens of America

“It was the longest car ride I’ve ever been on,” laughed Callie Donovan, a freshman majoring in Marketing Management. On Saturday, October 21, Callie and three other Collegiate Women In Business (CWIB) members woke up bright and early to make the eight-hour drive up to Boston, Massachusetts. After dropping off their bags at the hotel, the girls set out for some exploring in Beantown.

“First, we went to the Italian District, where Neha suggested a little pizza place for dinner. I called it the ‘Benny’s of Boston’, it was so good,” explained Callie. Next, they went to a little pastry shop nearby for some cannoli, gelato and/or biscotti. With their sweet tooth satisfied, the group headed back to the hotel for some much-needed rest.

On early Sunday morning, the small group headed over to the Sheraton Hotel for the IBC Women’s Conference. Callie talked about the first speaker that the group listened to and said, “During the women’s conference, the speaker [Nella Domenici, a Harvard alumna] talked about how she went back to Harvard when she was pregnant to finish her MBA degree. Listening to her talk about how she became the head of her organization and her journey to get there was very inspiring. She proved that she could do it no matter what was going on in her life.”

The event also consisted of a mingling session. Callie recalls the speakers that she related to the most saying, “In the first breakout session, I went to some marketing panelists. We met two girls from Columbia and sat next to them, which was cool. Two girls on the Marketing and Advertising panel described their startup businesses. One of them was Amanda Bradford, who created her own dating app called, “The League” for working women. She was young and her perspective was interesting [to hear].”

The company visits on Monday were in Cambridge and they were with some large, well-known companies. Callie was enthusiastic about the visits and noted that, “The company visits were awesome!! IBM was first. Evelyn Kim, a Virginia Tech alumna and General Manager at the company, spoke about how her career brought her to IBM. It was so much fun to hear her talk about her job because marketing is what I want to do. After her senior year internship, she chose to work in Boston, which is awesome because you typically don’t get to choose.” Another thing that Callie really liked about IBM is that, “[within the company,] you can jump around to different jobs. That’s why people love to work there—because they never get bored!”

If you haven’t guessed by now, Callie’s favorite part was ,“going to IBM. It was more one-on-one than the conference. I gained a lot of insight from the conference, but it was much more personal talking to the two ladies that worked [at IBM]. Since it was more personal, I feel like I got more out of it.”

The next and last company visit was PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), where Callie explained that, “Four women talked about what they do [in their job], and their community. In their direct projects and groups at work, they’re getting involved in promoting women with the same mission as Collegiate Women in Business. You can’t help but feel empowered when listening to so many amazing women. It was nice to hear that the majority of the leadership teams from the companies we visited were mainly focused on women. They never felt at a disadvantage for a moment, which is very refreshing to hear.”

Overall, the Harvard trek was wonderful experience and Callie learned a lot that can be applied to her position on the CWIB Marketing Team. “It made me a lot more excited about my major, more aware of opportunities, and more eager to seek out internships, she says, “ It helped me see how many opportunities there are in marketing. I even found an internship for Spotify in Australia!! It’s my dream internship. Even though I can’t apply for it until my junior year, I know about it and it’s on my radar.” Callie said with a sparkle in her eye.

Many great opportunities come up from relationships you make on treks. To Callie, the most important aspect of going on the Harvard Trek was, “meeting people, and it’s not just about networking for a career. [At first] it was intimidating when I was meeting people when I’ve never done that before, but it’s important to gain experience and practice for when it matters. It opens your eyes to what’s out there. I never considered IBM before hearing people’s stories, which was the best part. Everyone is different, and I learned that you can get to your end goal in so many different ways. It’s not always going to be a straight path [to your dream career], but you’ll get there.”