Each semester the mission of the Brock-Wilson Center becomes clearer to me: create a center where our young women can find their place to thrive while at the Daniels School of Business.
In the spring, that means I am participating in Purdue's for Me events, helping our admitted students imagine themselves at the business school while letting our admitted young women know that the center is ready to welcome them from the moment they are admitted. Through handwritten postcards from our Ambassadors, on-campus events, and our Learning Community, we are there to support them.
Our Center Ambassadors and Confident Transitions programs went through a year of dramatic growth, and we continue to bolster the Women in Business student organization in many ways. There has been growth in the PowerShift Case Competition and the Monarch Leadership Conference. Elizabeth Ventura, my new associate director, and I have big ideas — but we can’t deliver on these ideas without you.
Are you a recent graduate? We need your time to mentor our new graduates in the Confident Transitions program (that's the group in the photo at right — read this great feature story on the program!) as they make the big move into their first job or graduate school. The time commitment is small: one hour to meet with the graduate and answer their questions.
Are you interested in coming back to campus and engaging with current or prospective students? I have dreams of expanding case competitions but I can’t do that without judges and corporate sponsors. Maybe you are the link to one or both. Let’s talk!
Or maybe on Purdue Day of Giving you want to help support our initiatives to create a place of belonging for our students. The Ambassador program is growing dramatically, from 30 students last academic year to more than 75 this year. We have no reason to think it won’t be even bigger next year. I don’t want to turn any young woman away, but I’d love your help making sure we can support them with snacks, swag, and ice cream socials. My budget per Ambassador is $200.
Could you help support that program on Purdue Day of Giving?
Or would you like to support a high school student at our summer course or as we roll out new initiatives for high school sophomores and juniors during the school year? It costs up to $1,500 per student to provide the immersive summer experience. For the school-year programs we are piloting in the coming year, we’re budgeting $50 per high school student once they are on campus. Together we can show high school students that business is for them.
Thank you to all center supporters past, present and future for all the ways you make what we do possible.
Cara
Cara Putman
Clinical Assistant Professor
Director, Brock-Wilson Center for Women in Management
