Rundown: Establish Your Presence Workshop

Missed the Establish Your Presence Workshop with Stephanie Wiriahardja and Jillian Walker? Check out this word cloud summarizing the night.

Both Stephanie and Jillian met in 2010 at Beyond Pink. Three years later, they joined forces at our personal branding workshop and shared their stories. Both inspired everyone in the room, teaching our members how to create their personal brand and set short-term goals.

Following the workshop, members lined up for their LinkedIn head shots.

We hoped everyone enjoyed the workshop! We would like to thank all those that donated gently used handbags and purses to Dress for Success Vancouver.

Next workshop takes place in January and will focus on financial literacy. But before we look ahead to the new year, come out to our potluck fun night to celebrate the end of exams and the start of the Christmas holidays!

More info: http://www.ywib.ca/sfu/our-events/

Personal Branding: Establishing Your Presence

Every year, YWiB SFU hosts a personal branding workshop to give its members the skills they need to develop their brand. This year's workshop theme is "Establish your Presence".

We've got exceptional keynote speakers that will share about how social media and networking can help you establish your presence and brand. This will be followed by an opportunity for all attendees to have their Linkedin headshot photo taken.

Here's a sneak peek of what's in store for you on Wednesday, November 13:

Meet Stephanie Wiriahardja

She believes in the power of happiness and applies this concept to all spectrums of her work. Taking dandelion flowers as her inspiration, Stephanie wants to grow, evolve, and continue sharing her ideas.

She was born and raised in Jakarta, but moved to Vancouver eight years ago to continue her education. Despite her young age (24 years old), Stephanie has a strong experience under her belt as laid out on her LinkedIn.

Stephanie is currently the Community Manager of Higher Education at HootSuite, the top social media management system used by 79 of the Fortune 100 companies and 8+ million people worldwide. She successfully brought 316% of user growth and help hosted 110 events in 43 cities in 2012. Beside working full-time at HootSuite, Stephanie is also the involved in the Marketing team of Le Meridien Bali Jimbaran, ensuring the quality of the collaterals and the story produced.

Just last month, Stephanie gave a talk on personal branding at TEDxKids@BC and was featured as Social Media Guru on Vancouver 24Hours list of Top 24 Under 24. She also received the most votes for her nomination for the Must Follow (on Twitter) 2013 by The Social Media Awards in Vancouver and noted as the Top 1% Most Viewed LinkedIn profile in 2012.

Meet Jillian Walker

She is a passionate, overachieving, girlie girl.

Her days are spent working with leaders to become better leaders and working with employees to become their best selves. Officially, she's a Human Resources Professional. Truth be told though, she likes to do things differently. She challenges past history and pushes people and organizations to grow. Whether presenting to a corporate team, brainstorming with a business student club or tweeting out random thoughts, her goal is to encourage others to think differently.

When she breaks away from her career dreams, she loves to give back to the community. She is proud to be involved with Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship, Junior Chamber International and industry related organizations across Canada.

Volunteering to Support the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation

During Breast Cancer Awareness month, some of our members volunteered at select Safeway locations on October 19 to support the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. Sharing her experience at the Safeway Kensington location is Allison Chan:

My volunteer experience at the Kensington Safeway location was enlightening and enjoyable. There were times where my sales skills weren't needed due to customers wanting to donate for the sake of donating, and those moments really made me appreciate how charitable the people in Vancouver are. I also enjoyed watching the happy faces of customers' children enjoying the cookies and ribbons we handed out. The experience overall was heart-warming and inspiring, and I would do it again if given the chance.

Here are our other members volunteering at the Lougheed Safeway location:

Rundown: Launch Party - Sept. 25, 2013

Missed out on our Launch Party last week? Well, not to worry!

Our Launch Party was a huge success as girls gathered at the Halpern Centre to know more about our membership, programs, opportunities and upcoming events. Some got their hair and makeup done by Blanche McDonald, while others had fun outside at the slow-motion video booth - our very first by Butter Studios.

We also celebrated our fifth birthday with cake and heard speeches from our current President and Vice President, Rosa and Michaela, as well as former president Nicole Braam and a note from YWiB SFU founder, Stephanie Wong.

Here are some photos of how the evening went:

Did you participate in the slo-mo video booth? You may be in this promo video by Butter Studios..

http://vimeo.com/75830660

Why you should be a YWiB SFU member

As a non-profit society for emerging female leaders in Western Canada, Young Women in Business (YWiB) SFU opened under the greater YWiB network five years ago. It has since grown to include a platform of growth opportunities for emerging female leaders at SFU - ranging from workshops, socials, networking events, a mentorship program, social enterprise challenge, and, most recently, the International Women’s Day Conference. Within 5 years, the SFU chapter has grown to inspire and connect 100-120 members, from all faculties, annually and has helped them achieve their personal and professional growth goals - no matter what they are.

Check out this video and see how YWiB SFU has inspired Zoya, a second year social sciences student, and Megan, a fifth year communications and IAT student.

Join YWiB SFU today to build your story. Member applications are now open and deadline is September 29th. Simply fill the form here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrloWNsgwiw&feature=youtu.be

YWiB SFU's Launch Party!

It is time to kick-off the new semester with a birthday party! YWiB SFU is turning five and you are invited to join us on Wednesday, September 25^th from 4:30-6:30pm at the West Mall Atrium for a fun-filled evening! We will be celebrating five years of growth, opportunities, networking, and mentorship, each transforming us into the organization we are today.

Come mingle with dynamic individuals and learn all about YWiB SFU’s engaging programs and opportunities through our lovely executive team! There will also be a photobooth, hair and makeup artists, games, prizes, cake, candy, and much more! So don’t miss out! See you there!

Why You Should Be a Mentor

Supporting Our University Leaders (SOUL) Mentorship Program, initially launched in 2009, is a student-run program unique to YWiB SFU. SOUL connects SFU Alumni from various industries with talented SFU female students based on the personal and professional career aspirations of the student in order to develop an educational mentorship.

As mentioned in a Forbes article, there are benefits in how becoming a mentor can boost your career. You can:

• Better understand the business

• Better understand how people perceive you

• Create a larger network

• Help solve issues

• Gain personal satisfaction

SOUL gives an SFU Alumni the opportunity to gain those benefits. More importantly, the program provides SFU alumni the chance to contribute back to the SFU community, to meet and be inspired by passionate female students, and receive a rewarding experience of making a difference in someoneʼs life.

“SOUL is a supportive environment where both mentees and mentors are encouraged to grow and learn from one another and gain different perspectives on life,” says Sally Lee, co-executive of SOUL.

Both Sally and her co-executive, Fiona Kwong, were part of the program last year and the experience has profoundly impacted them.

“The SOUL Mentorship Program has added enormous value to my university experience,” says Fiona. “Prior to joining the program, I was lost and greatly restricted by my uncertainties and self doubt. My mentor liberally shared her personal experiences, and offered me valuable insight. Her encouragement and support helped me gain confidence that allowed me to step out of my comfort zone to take on opportunities, and achieve the goals I've set out to attain.”

As for Sally, being both a past mentee and a current executive has allowed her to develop long-lasting, meaning relationships and an understanding of SFU alumni who are passionate about giving back.

“I find SOUL to be refreshingly unique from other programs in that it is able to foster genuine and long-term relationships for each individual mentor-mentee relationship,” says Sally. “ I am so appreciative of how the program and the mentors are able to raise confidence and initiative for every mentee, including myself. I hope to have another successful year for the 2013/2014 term!”

*The duration of the program is from November to April. Deadline is August 31.

[Exec For A Day] Jocelyn's Story

At our recent International Women’s Day conference, we offered our members a chance to be an Executive for a Day, and job shadow some of Vancouver’s top executives! One of our winner’s, Jocelyn Tien, wrote this wonderful story about her experience meeting Sarah Thompson, University Relations Specialist at EA Canada!

On a sunny afternoon in late March I was making my way to the EA Canada Headquarters located in Burnaby. I was very excited and wondered what kind of a conversation I would be having with Sarah Thompson, University Relations Specialist for EA. It is Sarah’s job to recruit for EA, students out of University that would be talented and valuable additions to the EA Team here in Vancouver. When I arrived at EA, I immediately noticed the architecture and design of the building. Unless you are from the area, you really wouldn’t be able to tell just how big the EA Headquarters is until you get inside.

Once I arrived, I signed in using their sign in computer which sent Sarah an email notifying her of my arrival. Sarah came out shortly after I signed in and she greeted me with a very friendly smile. I could tell immediately that Sarah was a down to earth woman and someone I would be able to have a robust conversation with. Sarah was so generous and treated me to lunch at the EA Cafeteria! Let me tell you, that cafeteria had it all! Everything from a salad bar, to Teppanyaki, sushi, and a pasta bar- it had the works. Sarah and I were able to get a table outside on the lovely patio to enjoy the sun and our conversation. As a bonus for Easter, two Easter Bunnies were going around giving out chocolates to the employees.

I had many questions prepared but didn’t want it to be too much of a formal process, and Sarah’s personality really shone through as we spoke, so I just went with the flow. We started with the usual mini introduction of both our backgrounds and what our afternoon would look like. I learned a lot of things from Sarah and she gave some very good and constructive advice about the core values that she stood by. One of them was to try and always keep in mind that you always need to “be a human.” This concept really resonated with me because sometimes people tend to forget that they are just human. People make mistakes, you don’t always have the answer for everything and when you are working in HR (Human Resources) this factor is even more prevalent in your day to day work. When I asked Sarah what she liked and disliked about her job she told me that her job was unique because no day is ever the same and she loves the people that she gets to meet. The only thing she said she at times dislikes about her job is when it comes to the “nitty gritty” – but even then Sarah explains that it is a learning experience and it’s part of the job. I could tell that Sarah was quite positive about her work and her role at EA, because she even explained to me that while most people dread and tend to stay away from tough conversations, she takes them head on because you learn a lot from having tough conversations. What may seem to be a daunting and big issue can easily be toned down by having a conversation and figuring out what is it that someone is trying to say. An important piece of advice that Sarah left me with was that you don’t necessarily have to know everything about a product and it doesn’t have to be a product that you love and think about every day, but as an employee you should be familiar and knowledgeable about the product and get to know the lingo behind it. This will make your job easier and more fun because you are showing your co-workers and supervisors the effort you are putting in to getting to know the company, especially in the software and tech industry.

After our lunch, Sarah proceeded to give me a wonderful tour of EA. It was so cool to see that each floor to the office side had a different theme. So one floor was hockey themed based on the NHL games, the other floor would be soccer themed for the FIFA Soccer games and so on. As the tour went on you could see that EA had put in a lot of work into making their employees feel comfortable in their environment. Everything from the architecture, to the cafeteria, fully decked out gym (with classes like yoga, Pilates, and boot camp), and even a library of almost every game ever made- is all to influence the creative juices of their employees!

It was such a pleasure to spend the afternoon with Sarah and what a great opportunity it was to visit one of the largest and major players in the gaming industry. Thank you the YWiB SFU for this opportunity and for Sara and Electronic Arts for allowing me to visit!

- Jocelyn Tien

[Summer 2013] Our Reading List

The school year is finally over, and our team is looking forward to a summer filled with relaxing and recuperating! Oh ,who are we kidding. The outgoing executive team will be busier than ever, career hunting, taking summer classes, and exploring new opportunities. As our parting gift, we compiled this list of our recommended reads for those rare Sunday afternoons by the pool:

Dan Millman – The Journey of A Peaceful Warrior Recommended by Lucia, VP of Philanthropy "I recommend this highly imaginative book because it underlines the principles of kindness and perseverance that I believe are fundamental in all  interactions and relationships. I have been coming back to it years after reading it as I always discover a new valuable life lesson." 

Arlene Dickinson - Persuasian Recommended by Luvania, VP of Events This is a very motivating story of the highly sought after female entrepreneur, Arlene Dickinson. She gives you the insight and know how into how she got to where she is, as a successful business woman and mother. It's a compelling story of how you can use the art of persuasion to basically get whatever you want! 

Marianna Olszewski - Live It, Love It, Earn It Recommended by Rosa, VP of Events Very easy read, but compelling, funny, and inspiring. Not only does the book discusses financial literacy and how to be more investment-savvy - but also talks about work/life balance. Most importantly, it gives methods and strategies for achieving realistic goals and taking time for yourself (and learning how to say no!).

Shakespeare - Twelfth Night Recommended by Kathy, VP of Mentor Relations It's hilarious and laid back and quite easy to follow. Perfect for the summer time. A modernized version of it was made (She's The Man) which starred Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum.... hilarious pair and one of Channing's first big breaks! Also, I recommend it because it's one of the plays @ Bard on the Beach this summer :) 

Scott Stratten - UnMarketing Recommended by Tia, VP of Mentor Relations It's a no frills kind of book that tells people to stop marketing and start engaging. Super easy read!

Seth Godin - Purple Cow Recommended by Marie, VP of Media and Design An easy read with lots of case studies. It's a good book because it tells you how to stand out from the crowd. You want to be the purple cow! 

Walter Isaacson - Steve Jobs Recommended by Michaela, VP of Public Relations Although neither new or exciting, a really different read for anyone who needs a little bit of inspiration. Jobs was not your typical business man, and this book is a good reminder that there isn't always one right answer.

Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life Recommended by Carla, VP of Social Entrepreneurship It's a 40 day daily devotional that focuses on 5 purposes of human life on earth. 

Kelly Armstrong - The Rising Recommended by Nicole, President

Susan Cain - Quiet Recommended by Kathrene, VP of Internal Relations

[Exec For A Day] Christy's Story

At our recent International Women's Day conference, we offered our members a chance to be an Executive for a Day, and job shadow some of Vancouver's top executives! One of our winner's, Christy Liu, wrote this wonderful story about her experience meeting Christy Nguyen, CEO of Urban Bella!

As I stepped into Starbucks on a bright sunny day around 2:30pm, I knew I was one step closer to meeting Christy Nguyen, the CEO of Urban Bella. This was my first time meeting a professional, whom has the same name as me, so I was quite nervous!

I purchased a cup of warm Green Tea Latte and waited patiently, hoping to find an empty table on a crowded Wednesday afternoon. Luckily, I was able to spot one fast enough. I took a seat, took out my notebook and pen and got my list of around twenty-three questions ready. I have warned her that I am a curious person! I have sent Christy a list of my questions earlier so that she could prepare her answers.

While I sat patiently, I suddenly felt a tap on my shoulder and heard my name being called – it was Christy Nguyen! I quickly got up and shook her hand. We were both excited to meet each other. When she took a seat, I gave her an introduction of myself and I remember her telling me to relax and just “be authentic.” Feeling at ease, I began asking her my questions on her life as a CEO, her experiences, and her company.

Christy told me a lot about herself, from her interest in acting to how her business came to life. She told me it all started with ideas on a tissue paper while eating at Tim Hortons with her friend who turned out to be her business partner. Christy’s business, Urban Bella, has been a great success. Her company helps major marketing companies promote their products through events such as campaigns and trade-shows. I was also surprised to hear that in the first two years of her business, she was extremely busy, but now, she attends many networking events and has time to exercise and read books.

Christy now manages Urban Bella by herself and works together with her great team of employees. She tells me that “there are no bad employees, there are only bad managers.” Thanks for the tips, Christy!

My conversation with Christy was casual yet delightful and comfortable. I was really grateful that I was lucky enough to able to meet with Christy and learn so much from her. My perspective of the real business world has changed a lot and my motivation to become an entrepreneur has surely grown stronger. I look forward to meeting with her again!

- Christy Liu