November 9 marked our first Speaker Series Event of the year! Featuring Suzanne Gauron, Head of Launch with Goldman Sachs, the event captured insights from the male-dominated field of investment banking. Suzanne shared her experiences with Goldman Sachs, finding a passion in the walls of Wall Street, and finding confidence behind a string of challenges and rejections.

Chances are, you’ve heard the phrase, “It’s not about what you know. Rather, It’s who you know.” At our first Speaker Series event of the year, Suzanne Gauron – Head of Launch with Goldman Sachs – discussed the importance of networking and getting started as a college student. Sending cold emails, connecting with alumni from interested industries, and attending as many networking events as possible are just a few of the points Gauron emphasized – all of which are made easier through LinkedIn. Keep reading to learn more about the platform!

Inspired by South American flavors and motivated by “making healthy food fun”, Saskia Sorrosa created a company that provides baby foods and snacks that are lightly seasoned with herbs and spices: Fresh Bellies. Learn about her journey as a Latinx and female entrepreneur finding success in a male-dominated environment.

Goldman Sachs recently developed an initiative known as Launch With GS, which focused on investing capital in companies and investment managers with diverse teams. Led by WiB Speaker Series guest Suzanne Gauron, the initiative has already invested $1 billion towards a varied cohort of entrepreneurs. With this program’s success, Launch With GS is a small piece of the puzzle in closing of the diversity gap in investing.

Vanderbilt juniors Zoe Antell (‘22) and Jess Kaplan (‘22) are co-founders of ready dress go, a professional womenswear company seeking to bridge the gap between comfort, convenience, and style. As two young women in the world of entrepreneurship, Antell and Kaplan share with us how they got their start, the challenges they faced along the way, and their plans for the future of ready dress go.

This past Monday, the Vanderbilt WiB community had the amazing opportunity to speak with female entrepreneurs and learn from their experience and invaluable advice. These women all took huge risks to start their own businesses but ultimately achieved great rewards in doing so. Throughout this exciting event, these women spoke about their path to entrepreneurship, the setbacks they faced, and how students in college can already begin considering a career like theirs. Here, we take a closer look at the specific experiences of each woman who spoke during our event.

As an organization dedicated to empowering women and providing opportunities, Vanderbilt WiB has been a catalyst of change in improving gender equality. While we celebrate the achievements of women during Women’s History Month and on International Women’s Day, Vanderbilt WiB also aims to celebrate these achievements every day and continue to support both the women in our organization and women across Vanderbilt’s campus. To show our commitment to empowering women, I decided to look at some of our programs that have brought this organization together.

This week, we sat down with Maddie Arnold (‘21) of WiB Team Management to chat about her experience as a consulting intern at Accenture. Planning to return as a full-time employee after graduation, Maddie gives us all the details about the company culture, lessons she learned, and advice she has for students interested in landing an internship at Accenture.

Vanderbilt Women in Business started off the Spring 2021 semester with a consulting workshop led by our cofounders: Sasha Pines and Jo Cheng. Through this exciting virtual event, Sasha and Jo covered everything from how Vanderbilt WiB was started to the basics of consulting and even the consulting recruitment process. It was so inspiring to hear from the women who created this organization and learn a little bit more about how they got into the consulting roles they are currently in.

From CEOs and VPs to government officials, the WiB Speaker Series has hosted a multitude of distinguished guests in its short history, and yet, none who have had to take up this year’s challenge like Marne Levine, former COO of Instagram and White House Chief of Staff. Through a virtual platform, Marne delivered an empowering address to an all-time high number of attendees, including those from other institutions across the country. We sat down with Charlotte Pollard (class of 2021), the event’s head coordinator, to discuss more about putting together the Fall 2020 Speaker Series, in all of its challenges and unexpected lessons.

Vanderbilt Women in Business kicks off our Mentorship Program for Spring 2020 very soon! The program is entirely revamped for this semester, pairing aspiring female businesswomen (calling all Vandy ladies!) with mentors in the Nashville community. Through a series of workshops—covering everything from How Do I Write This Professional Email to a Professional and Sound Professional to What on Earth is Snappy Casual and Do These Black Jeans Count—mentees will learn how to navigate networking relationships and develop useful professional skills.

In the club’s first event of the 2019/2020 school year on October 10th, Vanderbilt Women in Business welcomed back an impressive alum. In her monochromatic black (aside from the silver-sequined slip-on flats, of course) power ‘fit, Emily White (‘00) sat with Vanderbilt’s Professor Jamie Leddin for a fireside chat-style talk, discussing with 75 attendees her time at Vanderbilt, where she earned her degree in art history and met her now-husband, and beyond.

On April 10th, Women in Business hosted its spring semester Mentorship Program in Wyatt Rotunda. The event featured 36 Nashville businesswomen across a variety of fields, including consulting, healthcare, and finance, with whom student mentees had the opportunity to connect with one-on-one.

On February 12th, Women in Business hosted its annual Career Carnival. Unlike previous Career Carnivals featuring local Nashville business professionals, this year’s event allowed students to connect with Vanderbilt upperclassmen in fields such as consulting, education, technology, finance, and more.

On November 29, 2018 Women in Business held its fall semester Mentorship Program in Wyatt Rotunda on Vanderbilt’s Peabody Campus. As the organization’s trademark event, the Mentorship Program has always driven high anticipation and high turnout year after year. This semester in particular, the event boasted over 30 local mentors and 55 participating student mentees.

On October 12th, Women in Business held its inaugural alumni reception in Buttrick Hall. Over coffee and bagels, the room buzzed with vibrant energy as alumni and current WIB members bonded over topics of business and female empowerment.

On October 2nd, Women in Business hosted its first event of the year, a fireside chat-style talk with Vanderbilt alum Bridget Blaise-Shamai, VP of Loyalty at American Airlines. Blaise-Shamai spoke with Vanderbilt alum and former President of Vanderbilt Alumni Association, Carroll Kimball, about her road to success, women in the workplace, and her recommendations for young women interested in the business world.

Ladies, we all know there is great importance in self-presentation in the realm of Business. The first impression an interviewer has of you, consciously or subconsciously, is the visual impression you give the minute you walk through that daunting door. Ideally, we would all own an endless supply of New York Fashion Week pantsuits or unlimited access to the Met Gala’s makeup artists and hairstylists. However, this is unfortunately not the case. Let’s explore a reasonable path to finding the perfect look for your next interview.

On Wednesday, February 28th, Women in Business held the annual Woman to Watch event. During this event, the Tennessee Speaker of the House, Beth Harwell, was featured. Harwell shared the intricacies of what it means to hold the position of the Speaker of the House and how she implements her personal leadership skills in her job.