Virtual Connections
The pandemic didn’t stop our desire for connectivity or our need to address important, and sometimes difficult, topics. Here’re some notable OCOB events from the past year, all organized by students who (with some help from Zoom) were willing to reformat in-person conversations for a virtual setting.
Breaking Down Barriers
Inspired by the social justice movements of 2020 and 2021, Orfalea College of Business students Kanika Chaudhary (Cal Poly Women in Business president), Luke Dubois (Accounting Club president), Tonya Tong (Business Council president), and Kayla Varney (Delta Sigma Pi vice president of professional activities), rallied other business club presidents and students to create concrete actions to make OCOB more diverse and inclusive.
They sought to join forces with other student leaders and dedicated time to brainstorming how to promote change within not only their own clubs, but within the college. The result was the Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges Conference, OCOB’s first student-led diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) summit.
The event was held 100% virtually on Sept. 20, 2020, and had more than 130 participants, representing at least 15 campus organizations. The conversation also featured multiple guest speakers and aimed to “provide leaders of OCOB clubs and organizations with the tools to engage in tough conversations and better integrate DEI initiatives within their respective spaces,” according to Chaudhary.
Accounting Symposium
The Cal Poly Accounting Club’s (CPAC) Fall Symposium is an annual networking event that provides students with opportunities to connect with public accounting firms, industry partners and government agencies in a social setting. Being Cal Poly’s largest accounting career fair, the event is a way for students to meet professionals and learn more about their options.
In 2020, instead of simply overcoming the challenge of planning the event virtually, the team of student organizers focused on how an online setting might give them an advantage. An example was their decision to allow students to preschedule meetings with recruiters, in replacement of physically walking up to a booth in person.
“I think more than anything, this gave the students more secured time with the firms they want to talk to,” said Lesly Ruiz, CPAC’s venue and logistics committee leader. Ultimately, more than 40 firms and 200 accounting students attended the virtual event.
Beyond The Resume
Organized by the students within the Multicultural Business Program, the Leadership Beyond the Resume conference engages student leaders and professionals through interactive speakers and workshops to showcase those advocating for diversity and inclusivity. This year, its theme was “Inclusion Starts with Improvement.”
The overall goal was to hold workshops that focused on managing self-care virtually, being considerate of others, taking advantage of at-home space to learn new skills and self-education surrounding social change and world events. With guest speakers from industry, the university and the college, the event was — as always — an insightful and empowering opportunity when it was held in February.
Defining Her Future
In addition to its Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges event, Cal Poly’s Women in Business Club also hosted its sixth annual Defining Her Future Conference on March 5 in a virtual format. According to assistant director of logistics Kritika Mahajan, about 450 people attended the event, which aimed to provide students of all majors and identities the opportunity to network with and hear from working professionals.
The organizers chose “courage” as the theme for the conference to inspire and uplift students amid the uncertainty many were experiencing due to the pandemic. “We wanted to embody this time of growth and opportunity and inspiration,” said conference director Frankie Galuppo. “And deliver a message we all need to hear.”
DEI Townhall
In the wake of the social activism that began with the death of George Floyd, the Orfalea College of Business DEI Action Committee was formed in the fall of 2020 to help foster a more diverse, equal, inclusive and productive community in OCOB’s classrooms and beyond.
Led by the college’s DEI faculty fellow, professor Ahmed Deif, the team consisted of three students, three faculty and two staff members. Among many other initiatives, part of its mandate was to help organize events and forums around honest and healing discussions, focusing on the state of diversity and equity at Cal Poly.
As a result, in April, the Orfalea College of Business hosted its first Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Townhall, which invited students, faculty and staff to engage in a conversation about DEI within the college. “This is our college,” Deif said of his primary goals surrounding both the committee and the townhall. “This is our climate that we breathe in and live in and learn in and educate in, so I want to help make it a healthy, DEI-conducive climate.”