4' a: I i l: i : EEI campus@technewsiit. com TechNews | Tuesday, February 9th, 2016

WIIT Opens Committees To Non- DJs for External Input

Soren Spicknall
TECHNEWS WRITER

In the time since WIIT started
playing over building speakers in MTCC,
everybody seems to have developed an opinion
of the campus radio station’s music mix The
two most recent Music Directors at the station
have both focused on developing an eclectic
yet accessible music library for the station’s
automation system (which plays between
DJehosted shows), featuring recognizable
artists like Arcade Fire and Foster the People
along with more niche choices like Mates of
State and Sparklehorsei In general, though,
the recent trend in WIIT’s automated music
selection has gravitated toward the nebulous
concept of “indie", in line with the type of
artists whose work was most popularly taken

during the organizations CD giveaway last
semester In the end, though, it’s impossible
for any one individual to have full expertise on
the infinitely wide array of genres and musical
communities out there, and WIIT is beginning
a new initiative this semester to bring in
outside voices that may have valuable input in
music and other parts of its operations as well

WIIT’s Executive Board has, at
times, attempted to create a number of
committees within the organization to help
with certain tasks, such as event planning
and repair work However, those committees
have largely been formed from existing WIIT
DJs in the past, a very limited and arguably
insular audience This semester that practice is
changing and committees are being opened to
general members of the student body for the
very first time As it stands right now, there

are three active committees for students to
join; the Music Committee, headed by Liza
McQueney (mdiwiit@iitedu) helps identify
the most relevant new releases in each genre
and keeps WIIT’s collection of promotional
releases organized The Technical Committee,
headed by David Sobel (tdiwiit@iitedu)
performs routine maintenance and emergency
repairs on equipment in WIIT’s studio and
various other locations around campus where
broadcast infrastructure is hidden The Events
Committee, headed by Michael Deverman
(eventswiit@iitedu) formulates and executes
happenings as big as BillNye @ IIT and as small
as the occasional open house Membership in
each committee simply requires an email to its
respective WIIT Executive Board member
Every semester, WIIT receives
inquiries from a large number of people who

want to hear certain things on air, help out
with work in the studio while learning about
the station’s equipment, or suggest compelling
event concepts, but in the past the organization
hasn’t had any structure in place to bring
in students who don’t have interest in a DJ
position and aren’t Executive Board members
This reinvention of the radio station’s
committees hopes to solve that issue, allowing
interested students to work with station
leadership on projects without having to host
a show It introduces a new type of member
to WIIT: the specialist People who care about
certain kinds of music, or who love to build
systems, or who want a platform to create
events and see them through to fruition will
now be able to without needing to become a
DJ on the station, opening up the organization
to a new era of collaboration and input

A conversation with Helen Ezenwa and Shahzad Hussain of
the Career Management Center at Stuart School of Business

Shachi Sayata
TECHNEWS WRITER

I had the opportunity to interview
the Career Management Center (CMC) of
Stuart School of Business The department is led
by Helen Ezenwa and Shahzad Hussain They
started working at the Career Management
Center of Stuart School of Business two years
ago and were absolutely thrilled to share their
experience so far

Prior to working for Stuart, Ezenwa
was Vice President and Program Manager for
JP Morgan Chase She worked in domains
including, commercial banking, investment
banking, IT, operations and human resources
This helped her understand the spectrum
of industry trends across the landscape She
said, “With my experience, I am able to give
students valuable insights and guide them
effectively across multiple disciplines”

I inquired why she shifted from a
commercial environment at JP Morgan and
Chase to a more academic one at the Stuart
CMC, to this she said that she witnessed the
fact that after some candidates were recruited
and placed they were not aware of the key
skills needed to retain and thrive in their roles
By working in a more academic setting, she
could bring more focus to nurturing the talent
pool Ezenwa added, “My goal at Stuart CMC
is to ensure there is better ‘career match’ by
facilitating clear understanding of employer’s
expectations and the student’s career goals I
believe this type of strategy is more effective in
the long run?’

She took the opportunity to join
Stuart School of Business because she realized

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it was a great opportunity to deploy her talent
management skills Further, the Advancing
Career and Education program that is a
mandatory requirement for all graduate
students at Stuart helped her explore her
passion for teaching

Hussain, just like Ezenwa, has been
working for the Stuart Career Management
Center for the past two years Prior to
assuming this position, he worked partitime
at Stuart CMC He enjoys working in this
field and advising students, networking with
employers, organizing events and nurturing
our relationships with alumni He is an IIT
alumnus himself; he graduated in 1989 with
a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering
He has also worked at AT&T Bell Labs before
relocating to India

While in India, he took the
entrepreneurial route and set up Vocational
Training Institutions in 199972000 which
provided him with an opportunity to pursue
his passion for service through education
He oversaw employer relations and career
advising and Stuart CMC was a natural
transition for him when he moved back to the
USA few years ago The Advancing Career and
Education program has aided him in pursuing
his passion for teaching and helping students
develop strong business competencies

I asked them what would they say
is the goal of Stuart CMC; both had their own
answer:

Ezenwa said, “We of course have
a goal that all our students are placed in
organizations that nurture their talent to the
fullest potential Our primary strategy is to

 

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ensure that our students are more ‘hire ready?
We have been able to make a series of changes
to achieve this goal with the support of our
leadership at Stuart’ '

Hussain said, “I agree with Helen,
our focus has been more on nurturing the
talent rather than merely matching it to the
wide array of opportunities in the industry
today We want to ensure that our students have
careers and not just jobs Employers believe
that this type of strategy is more beneficial
to them as well since it has a more longeterm
focus Today, they feel that our students are
much more prepared and indeed hireeready?’

Based on Student feedback, they
recently organized the first ever Stuart
Career Fair in Fall 2015 and had companies
like Goldman Sachs, Axiom Technologies
that recruited students for positions in
CME and Northern Trust They have also
initiated a program called Career Pathways
by Program where they invite employers
regularly on campus to give presentations to
students on career opportunities in finance,
mathematical finance, marketing analytics,
public administration and sustainability This
gives the students an opportunity to learn first
hand the latest developments, industry trends,
and the skills needed to be successful in their
careers

The ‘Transition to Work’ program
is a workshop is conducted by Jessica Worny
Janicki, a certified career coach conduct
These workshops ensure students are well
equipped with skills such as customizing their
resumes, conducting informational interviews
and understanding employer expectations In

addition to the workshops, sample resume and
cover letters are available on the CMC website
as well

The ‘Career Clinic’ program was
introduced for recent Stuart graduates who
are invited to participate in an intensive two,
day clinic with an executive coachi An onsite
career fair is also held exclusively for this
group of recent graduates

They have surely come a long way;
I was curious to know what their goals for
the future will be To this they expressed
their desire to increase participation from
undergraduate students By attending events
and workshops, students are able to make
sound career decisions They would thus
like to focus their strategy to ensure that the
undergraduate students can take advantage
of the Stuart CMC services They would also
like to increase its scale of the Staurt specific
Career Fair and have more companies

TechNews also reached out to a few
alumni to obtain feedback regarding their
experience Here’s what Maggie Ding, Master
of Public Administration class of 2015, had to
say:

“Helen Ezenwa is really helpful
with everything She helped me a lot with
helping me better perform in my first summer
internship Her doors are always open to us and
she welcomes us to talk about our thoughts and
concerns She assisted me in identifying my
career goals and developing effective strategies
for job searching I always feel confident and
energetic after talking with her"

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