Lecture series begins today

By Jennifer Kang
Reporter

Students who take the initiative to learn how to take the initiative may do so by attending a presentation about handling business situations in your career. Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business will host a presentation this evening.

Rhett Dawson, Baylor alumnus and international sales director for Success Motivation International, Inc., will speak on different types of business situations and the use of personal motivation and development in businesses.

He will speak at 5 p.m. in 510 Cashion Academic Center as part of the business school’s First Wednesdays series.

The lecture is open and free to all students.

Rockwall senior Emily Kirwan, a nonprofit marketing and international business major, said Dawson will also speak on goal setting, evaluation and improved productivity and performance that will help new entrepreneurs. Kirwan is a member of the professional development program that plans the events.

“Rhett is from South Africa and moved to the U.S. just for Baylor,” Kirwan said. “Rhett, as an international business major, has a lot to offer and can give good advice on adjusting to different situations, just as he did when moving to the U.S.”

According to the Hankamer School of Business’s marketing website, First Wednesdays are ways for students to hear from various business professionals about cutting-edge information and opportunities pertaining to their industries.

Karen Lancaster, marketing lecturer, said the First Wednesdays program is led by students in the professional development program.

The professional development program plans events that focus on ways students can improve their chances of finding the right careers by having the right skills.

“First Wednesdays are set up this way so that the students can look for speakers that are interesting to them and would be interesting to the other students,” Lancaster said. “If I or another professor were to choose all the speakers, they would tend to be pretty similar or just people I knew from my experience and background.”

Lancaster said First Wednesdays will show students that they need to take initiative in finding the right career before the spring semester of senior year.

“First of all, this gives students the opportunity to hear professionals speak about their jobs and what they do every day, and gives the students the opportunity to see and start thinking about their own careers,” Lancaster said. “Secondly, most of the speakers will give job search hints and a little bit of professional dress advice and those kinds of advice that are just good for students.”

Kirwan planned October’s First Wednesdays event.

“Each student is supposed to come up with a speaker that would be interesting for the student body to listen to and provide students information on how to set themselves apart as a young employee in the working world, or how to get an internship and business experience,” Kirwan said. “One of the reasons I got an internship last summer was because one of these programs stressed the importance of having experience before actually going into the working world.”

Kirwan said students should take advantage of any resource at Baylor that will enable them to find the right job.

“These incredible speakers that Baylor hosts will really help us with our future,” Kirwan said. “I mean for me, I would have never thought how important an internship was if a business professional hadn’t stood up there and told me it is important to get an internship because it sets you apart.”

Kirwan said the First Wednesdays are a great way for students to learn how to be professional and ethical, as well as how to be excellent speakers.