By Clara Lincicome | Reporter
Women in Business at Baylor (WIB) is a student organization that aims to provide a place of encouragement and growth for aspiring female business professionals.
The club currently averages around 200 members each year and is the largest business organization at Baylor. Every month, members get the opportunity to participate in a social event, a professional development event and a service opportunity.
“We really want to help club members become well rounded and have useful things to put on their resume,” San Francisco senior Alexis Cheng said.
Cheng is the publicity chair for WIB and emphasized the importance of the mentorship program within the organization, where upperclassmen are paired with underclassmen in order to “help members get more connected in the business school and in the club.”
The club also has various committees, where members can apply to help board members and serve the organization in different ways. Cheng runs a publicity committee and said participating “helps people get more involved, put more things on their resume and helps them in running for a board position in the future.”
Aside from mentorship and experience through service, members get to hear from successful women in business speak monthly as they learn more about the field they are entering and the challenges and opportunities they may face in the future.
“As women in business, we do want to help women feel more comfortable in the workplace and feel like they have a voice to speak up,” Melissa senior Mary Margaret Jordan said. “By having professionals come and speak to our members is really reassuring to them and really shows that you can go far in your career, even if you are a woman in a male-dominated field.”
Jordan is currently vice president of WIB and has been involved since she was a freshman. She said she views the organization as a valuable tool in building the confidence and skill it takes to be successful in the workplace post-graduation.
“Being a student and at Baylor, we feel really comfortable where we are, but whenever we go out into the real world, we don’t know what sort of biases we might be faced with,” Jordan said. “Being in Women in Business is an opportunity to learn from people who have experience in that field.”
The organization also focuses on incorporating faith with business and the importance of upholding Christian values.
“Part of our mission as Women in Business is that we are very faith-driven, and that’s also a unique part of our membership, is that we are aspiring business women, and we are also Christians,” Jordan said. “How can we let our faith play into our careers? We try to integrate that into all of our events that we do, service, social and professional.”
The organization includes a service events chair/chaplain, who is tasked with finding ways to help members grow in their relationship with God. This year, that means monthly devotionals posted on instagram, which Jordan said “allows members to have a place to talk about ideas that are shared and how that can relate to things that we are all going through.”
Cheng said every board meeting begins with prayer and a reading of scripture as a way to remind members that there are more important things in the world than making money.
“Those are important things that we do emphasize, but we just want our members to remember that that’s not all that there is … and that the most important thing is that you are faithful to what you believe in, you are keeping your faith and that you are doing what you love and think is right,” Cheng said.
March is Women’s History Month, and WIB took the opportunity on Instagram to thank their founders “for creating a space for women to come together and help each other grow as professionals,” the post said.
“[WIB] gives women a space to help each other where otherwise they might not get the recognition they deserve,” Cheng said.
Jordan said she has been able to see the program progress in her four years at Baylor and in WIB and has appreciated the leadership opportunities, friends and experiences it has provided her.
“The organization has so much momentum. It’s been growing so fast over the last few years,” Jordan said. “It’s been really cool to see what our leadership and members have been able to accomplish.”
