I attended the “Building Powerful Partnerships” event hosted by the Women of Canisius leadership council, in Science Hall on April 3. The event began with a short talk about the importance of mentorship from Maureen Hurley, and then it transitioned to a speed meeting format, allowing for short conversations between nearly all of the students and mentors.
The most striking thing about the event was that, while men were welcome, I was only one of two that attended. This caused there to be a definite learning curve because not only was it my first ever official networking event, I was quite literally the odd man out, and I didn’t know a single person that showed up. All of those factors made the wait in the beginning a little awkward, but it was all fine once everything got going.
The speed meeting portion of the event was a mixture of beneficial and a little weird. There was no one from the media field to relate to which was disappointing, but that didn’t prevent conversation. I talked to a lot of the women about business dynamics and any risky career jumps they’ve made, if they’ve made any. There were some people that would completely rule out conversation based on the fact that they couldn’t relate to my media background, and honestly that was a little annoying because it turned into me pretty much talking at them, because they wouldn’t play their role for the two minutes we were allotted
Overall this event was filled with ups and downs, but was mostly positive. I think its good that I was forced to be in a somewhat uncomfortable situation, and I was able to successfully work my way through it.
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