Select Page

403000_358840370801561_1254324854_n

After sitting in the TSG meeting on Friday, it is abundantly clear that the overarching goal, for both the student leaders and top administrators, is increasing Thunderbird students’ employability. With key decision makers on hand, including President Penley, adapting current curriculum in response to student, alumni and most critically, employer inputs is a top priority. As well, student clubs are arranging on-campus networking events, securing transportation to off-site networking events and bringing alumni speakers to campus.

Recently ranked #3 among top MBA schools in the Economist’s ranking of “Potential to Network,” Thunderbird already has an impressive and engaged network for students to tap into for potential employment. To further emphasize this, during Friday’s TSG meeting there were several updates on CMC, TSG and Net Impact’s effort to bring alumni from high profile companies to campus for networking opportunities. An upcoming event, The Global Citizens Forum, is a key example of this effort. To help kick off the event, the Net Impact club is hosting a Speed Networking reception where select students will have the opportunity to network with T-bird alumni from high-profile companies such as Coca-Cola, Unilever, Microsoft, Zappos, MillerCoors, and Driscoll’s.

“This will be a fantastic opportunity to receive personalize coaching from alumni executives from great companies,” noted Tiago Ferraz,TSG Alumni Relations chair. Students who are interested in participating should visit thunderbird.jobidol.com, create an account, and record your best 30-second commercial by March 19th at 5pm. The top 20 commercials submitted by students will be invited to attend the Speed Networking event Thursday evening and following reception at the Pub.

Lauren Simkulak, President of Net Impact, reiterated the benefit of events like these for students,  “Past years’ Global Citizen Forums had more of a focus on non-profit and social enterprise. While we recognize the important of these stakeholders, we wanted to showcase for-profit companies this year, their efforts towards sustainability and specifically how their marketing spend will change in the future as a result. Since marketing is a major concentration here at Thunderbird, we wanted to provide this networking opportunity for students.”

The T-bird Network provides an important advantage in helping students launch their careers after Thunderbird.  It is an even greater benefit that all the groups on campus are unified in a singular goal: T-Birds with jobs make a stronger, more valuable, Thunderbird.