EOC Newsletter

by Janet Mangano

 

Who we are
We are friends and alumni of Baruch who seek to evaluate, enhance, and improve the undergraduate and graduate mentoring programs of the Executives on Campus (EOC). Our committee, 19 strong, consists of volunteers in the Executive Student Partnership, Entrepreneurship, FWA, School of Public Affairs, SEEK, Mentor for a Morning, and Corporate Communications mentoring programs. Each of us has a minimum of five years of post-graduate and professional experience in our fields.

What we do
We meet on the fourth Tuesday evening of each month and brainstorm! With the assistance of our esteemed EOC founders, Norm Brust, Paul Koren, and Dick Merians, as well as our director Jacqueline “J.” McLoughlin, we defined our mandates at the onset of our efforts in January 2011. Our primary focus is the sustainability of EOC mentoring activities, through volunteer resources of time, talent, and treasure. Our recruitment efforts have paid off, with 61 mentors added year-to-date. We are also developing a mentor directory using social media to facilitate ease of communications between mentors, and materials for mentors that cover topics such as resources, ethics, and training.

The critical importance of fundraising emerged at the onset of our discussions. Due to the budgetary crisis facing the state, funding for the EOC program was frozen. We are taking practical steps to increase the participation of our volunteers in fundraising, as direct contacts to corporations and other philanthropies, and also as donors themselves. As the springtime thaw continues, let’s all focus on a warmer climate for funding the program!

by Carol Gamm

Congratulations to Moheeta Tamrakar, Baruch’s newly-elected Graduate Student Assembly-Club Liaison for the 2011-2012 academic year. Moheeta is one of the many EOC students who contribute so much to the Baruch community, and I’m proud to be her mentor.

 

Like many other Baruch students, Moheeta does an amazing job of juggling a number of roles and responsibilities. Moheeta is a second-year MBA student, an intern for the digital marketing firm The Red Rooster Group, VP of Marketing for the Zicklin Women in Business, and VP of Marketing for the Zicklin Project Management Club. In addition, she has worked both as a graduate assistant at Baruch and as a research assistant at the Columbia University Institute for Tele-Information. However, Moheeta’s personal story, the story of her journey from her home in Kathmandu, Nepal to Idaho State University, to New York City and Baruch, is even more impressive.

When Moheeta decided to leave her family and come to the US to go to college, the family agreed on Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho, because Pocatello seemed like a safe, small-town community. Although Pocatello offers a somewhat limited range of opportunities, Moheeta succeeded in making the most of them. She was elected to the business honor society Beta Gamma Sigma, worked as an intern for the College of Business PC Support office, served as Finance Chair for the 2008 Idaho Business Leader of the Year program, and was VP of Information and VP of Finance for Alpha Kappa Psi, the professional business fraternity. After graduating with a BBA in Computer Systems and Management, Moheeta worked for an international foods trade association in Wisconsin while deciding on her next professional move. Moheeta decided that her greatest career interests were in international business and digital marketing, so she applied to Baruch, traveled to New York (again on her own), and began the MBA program in 2010. I can only imagine the initiative and resourcefulness necessary for making this journey, and for making the most of every available opportunity.

Students like Moheeta make being an EOC mentor an exciting and rewarding experience. Moheeta may have received some internship help and career advice, but I received an even greater gift. This year, the world came to me.

by Sharon Belden Castonguay, EdD

Recently, an MBA student at Baruch’s Zicklin School of Business wrote:

“I have had an incredible experience working with the Graduate Career Management Center (GCMC) and the various programs and resources offered by them.”

The Graduate Career Management Center is an educational department dedicated to providing Zicklin graduate students and alumni with the tools and resources necessary to successfully manage their careers while building relationships between employers and the Baruch community to help develop talent pipelines. With only five full-time professional staff, we serve over 2,500 graduate students to provide individual career counseling, facilitate job search groups, and give access to electronic resources to help with industry research. All of our services are available to alumni without charge.

We partner with the EOC to administrate the Executive Student Partnership and Mentor for a Morning programs, serving over 100 students and 100 mentors a year. The student quoted above was an active participant.

“On starting the MBA program in Fall ’09 I was accepted into the Executive Student Partnership (ESP) program offered by the EOC. Working with my mentor (Ms. JoAnn Ryan) helped me bridge the cultural differences between my work experience in India and the job markets here in the United States. She also connected me to several professionals in the management consulting industry, which ultimately led to an interview with Deloitte Consulting. Once again, the GCMC offered several mock interviews and very valuable feedback which helped me prepare better for my interviews and ultimately land an offer with the firm.”

Through our cultivation of employer relationships we facilitate, on average, over 400 job and internship applications a month via our online jobs portal, Zicklin CareerLink. To learn more about how your organization can tap into the talent pool available at the Zicklin School of Business, contact Sharon Belden Castonguay, Director of the Graduate Career Management Center at: [email protected].

“I believe the services offered by the GCMC and EOC are a very valuable asset to the graduate students at school. It has certainly helped me make a successful transition from a pure technical background to one of the most challenging careers in business.” —George Urumpipara, MBA ‘11