On February 27th, the Perdue School of Business (PSB) hosted their semesterly THE Meeting for over 200 students in our personal and professional development course, BUAD 200. THE Meeting is an acronym standing for Transition to the professional program, Hear from faculty, and Engage with other departments and students. Modeled after a business conference, the goal of THE Meeting is to engage the pre-professional students and prepare them for the professional program at the Perdue School of Business. THE Meeting was facilitated by Dr. Tammy Donaway, Director of Applied Business Learning Experience, and junior Student Business Leader (SBL) and event chair Abigail Murrell.
The program opened with a welcoming session led by Murrell, which included speeches from Associate Dean Dr. Jamie Emerson and senior SBL Kristal Racco, who is an Accounting and Information Systems double major. Racco has been an SBL for three years and noted when she first entered the Perdue School she could not imagine speaking in public, but it was through her experience at Perdue that she was able to take on that challenge. She shared some helpful advice that can be organized in a PERDUE acronym framework:
P: Prioritize Well-being
E: Embrace Fears and Challenges
R: Represent Yourself in the Way You Want to Be Perceived
D: Develop Strong Relationships with Professors and Network as Much as Possible
U: Utilize All Resources Available to You
E: Engage with Student Organizations
Both Dr. Emerson and Racco reminded students what it takes to be successful in a professional school and taught lessons that will remain far beyond graduation day.
After the opening session, students were divided into two groups. Each group would spend half their time in a breakout session learning more about their chosen majors. Special thanks to Dr. Argha Sen, Prof. Cadence Wright, Dr. Ani Mathers, Prof. Silvana Chambers, Dr. Jing Quan, Dr. Chao Miao, and Dr. Xiaoxia Zhu for leading those sessions. The other half of the time was spent in a resource session where students explored clubs and different organizations in the Perdue School and Salisbury University at large. When visiting these organizations’ tables, students were required to ask questions. This semester, there was a new addition to the resource session: the University Writing Center, as well as the usual attendees such as MBA, Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization, Info Systems Connect Club, Counseling Services, the PSB Career Advisory Board, Marketing Excellence – and many more.
Overall, the event was a success with students saying:
“THE Meeting was very thorough, organized and very informative.” – Dom Cahill, Class of 2027 Finance Major
“One thing I liked about THE Meeting was going into breakout rooms with our majors and being there specifically with the management professors. I got to learn a lot more about what the future of being a management major would look like in the Perdue School of Business.” – Katie Gosnell Class of 2028 Management Major
This is what THE Meeting is all about – and it will continually help support students’ entrance into the Perdue School each semester.