Tuesday, February 26, 2013 | TechNews campus@technewsiit.com UTSAV GANDHI 3 ASB-IIT completes another successful fundraising season Utsav Gandhi CAMPUS EDITOR As spring break draws closer and closer, a group of twenty one students and three staff members are eagerly looking forward to cul— minate their annual fundraising efforts and take a road trip down to Albany, GA (about two hours’ drive from Atlanta) for the an— nual Alternative Spring Break — Habitat for Humanity Collegiate Spring Break challenge. Each year, a group of students coordinate and lead a team of students to a Habitat for Humanity site in an effort to volunteer over spring break. These trips are usually memo— Entreprenuership Swasti Khuntia LAYOUT EDITOR The IIT Entrepreneurship Academy in association with Wanger Institute for Sus— tainable Energy Research (WISER) hosted a talk by Alumni Cynthia (C. J.) Warner. While WISER invited Ms. Warner as a part of their 2013 WISER/Galvin Center Seminar Series, IIT Entrepreneurship Academy invited her for a talk on the story behind her successful career as an energy executive, and to network with fellow IIT students, faculty and staff. Cynthia (C.J.) Warner holds a BS. degree in chemical engineering from Vander— bilt University and an M.B.A. from Illinois rable experiences for the participants, teach— ing them valuable lessons in team building, effective communication, mentorship, travel and giving back to the community. Previous years have seen teams travel to California and Alabama too. To make the trip possible, the team has to fundraise effectively throughout the year in order to substantiate the remainder of the Finance Board proposal. Over the past year, the team has held some very success— ful fundraisers to establish their presence on campus. Last semester these included a booth at ISO’s Taste of IIT (including an award for the best designed booth!), the popular Pie— in—the—Face as well as traveling to North— western University to work at their basketball games. A big shout out also to the fundraising startup, GetPear.com, where some inspired encouragement from their campus represen— tative Rani Shah allowed us to raise enough money to buy our own t—shirts. The winter break saw the fundraising efforts continue with gift wrapping at a local Barnes and Noble bookstore. This semester the group executed a spaghetti lunch, partnered with Illinois Tech A Capella to deliver Singing Valentines, had a successful Bake Sale on Valentine’s Day and will wrap up the semester with another spa— ghetti lunch, this time at a local church. There is still another opportunity to contribute to ASB’s cause, though! This com— ing Thursday (2/28), the nearby bar/restau— rant Rocky’s on 31st and Wells will have a Col— lege Night while screening the Chicago Bulls’ game vs. the 76’ers. All tips will be matched and all proceeds will go to Alternative Spring Break! And even if you won’t get to be a part of IIT ASB for this year, don;t worry! Another student org, EWB—USA, IIT will be hosting a one day community service effort this coming Saturday, March 2nd, at Habitat for Human— ity’s local Chicagoland chapter in Elgin, IL. Transportation will be provided and the trip will run from 8:30am to 4pm. Contact ewb, group@iit.edu for more information and to sign up. Academy, WISER bring successful alumnus to campus Institute of Technology. Mrs. Warner joined Sapphire Energy, Inc. in February 2009 as President, was named Chairman in May of 2010, and CEO in April of 2012. She brings more than 27 years of experience in the en— ergy, refining and transportation industries. At Sapphire Energy, Ms. Warner is leading the company’s ongoing technology development and transition into commercial—scale crude oil operations. During her talk at the WISER/Gal— vin Office Suite, Ms. Warner spoke about the topic “Growing the World’s Fuel”. Discussing energy production as one of the most chal— lenging issues facing scientists and engineers today, she mentioned how her company, Sap— Phota by Swasti Khuntia SWE post Career Fair tips Rachel Woodall TECHNEWS WRITER The Society of Women Engineers re— cently brought in an alumni speaker, Julie Hill (MMAE ’07), to prepare their general body for the career fair and helping them achieve your career goals. The foremost piece of advice she had to give was to be confident to get noticed. If you’re wondering what to wear, just keep in mind that you need to dress to impress. When choosing between business casual and busi— ness professional, she felt that the ones in the latter are more motivated and more ambitious because they took the time to research what is acceptable and more noteworthy. Presenting yourself, no matter how nervous you may feel, is easy with a nice smile, strong handshake, good posture, and clear speaking. Practicing in front of a mirror al— ways helps. When people who are dressed professionally walk up to you and extend their hand, say ‘hello’, smile, and say clearly “Hi, I’m [XYZ], a [senior mechanical engineering] ma— jor at Illinois Tech,” recruiters already want to hire them and hope that their resume matches their professionalism. Besides a strong GPA, research ex— perience (IPROs included), and extracurricu— lar activities (esp. leadership roles), what im— presses companies is when students write them a thank—you note and make sure they follow any instructions given (like applying online for internship opportunities). Research the companies you spoke to at the career fair. If you have a certain field you want to work in but the company says they are not hiring in that area, you might want to look at other companies. For example, you are interested in the health care field and are look— ing at a company currently working on health related projects, but they told you that they are not hiring in that area of their company. If you really did your research it can never hurt to say “I know that [this company] recently de— veloped a drug that targets can you tell me more about that division/ project, etc.” But saying, “I know [this company] specializes in healthcare...can you tell me more about that division” isn’t really showing that you did adequate research. Recruiters will know that you are not experienced and maybe haven’t had time to consider all possibilities. phire Energy, is at the intersection of cutting edge biotechnology, energy, and agriculture research. Sapphire has headquarters in San Di— ego, California, an R&D facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico; and is currently operating the first Integrated Algal Bio—Refinery in Colum— bus, New Mexico. She also spoke about how she sees her company’s product, Green Crude, changing the world’s petrochemical landscape. Green Crude is a renewable and sustainable form of crude oil; breaking down many of the barriers that were once thought to hinder algae—to—energy technology with advances in biology, chemistry, and engineering. Finishing her talk at WISER semi— nar, she joined the IIT Entrepreneurship Acad— emy for a networking session with fellow IIT students. Nik Rokop, Managing Director of the Jules F. Knapp Entrepreneurship Center at IIT, introduced Ms. Warner to the crowd and en— couraged everyone to be prepared with ques— tions after the talk. Ms. Warner spoke about her transition from an executive with energy industry giants British Petroleum, Amoco Oil Company, and UOP to a start—up company, Sapphire Energy. Interacting with the audi— ence, she answered many questions starting from funding her own start—up to landing an internship at her company. Overall, it was an interactive and interesting talk, which was en— joyed by the audience. Fueling Innovation continues Betsy Hughes VP, INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEM ENT Friday, February 8, 2013 was a memorable day for me at IIT. Standing at the top of the stairs in the MTCC with Presi— dent Anderson, we were overwhelmed by the crowd of students, faculty and staff who turned out to hear the news about Fueling In— novation: The Campaign for IIT. Thank you! I also want to thank Kelly Lohr, SGA Presi— dent and Will Syvongsa, Union Board Presi— dent for speaking at the event about the im— pact the campaign already is having in terms of scholarships, faculty support and facility improvements. Our goal is to raise $250 million— from June 2010 to December 2016—and as of February 8 we had achieved $131,791,822. This represents gifts large and small, from 8,931 donors! The remaining funds will come from alumni and friends of the university, and will be directed toward scholarships, fac— ulty support, improvements to existing facili— ties, general operations of the university and building of the Innovation Center. The money also will come from current students, through the Student Gift Campaign which this year will support modular furniture in the Galvin Library. This year’s Student Gift Campaign, led by Ropo Sanni (ARCH ‘13) and Bhavna Hosa— kere (EE ‘13) has the added benefit of a chal— lenge gift from our campaign co—chair, Bud Wendorf (ME ‘71). You can find out more about the Student Gift Campaign at alumni. iit.edu/2012gift and about the campaign pri— orities at fuelinginnovation.iit.edu. At the event last week we an— nounced that an extraordinary gift of $12 million has been received from Caryl Pucci Rettaliata, wife of former IIT President John T. Rettaliata. Ten million dollars of this gift will go toward the renovation of Engineer— ing—1, a building that was built during Dr. Rettaliata’s presidency, which will now be renamed the ‘John T. Rettaliata Engineering Center’. Renovations will begin this sum— mer and are expected to continue into fall of 2014. The remaining $2 million fully endows the John T. Rettaliata Endowed Chair in the College of Engineering, held by Dr. Hassan Nagib. This wonderful gift brings the number of campaign commitments in ex— cess of $10 million to four. The others were received from Craig J. Duchossois and Ralph Wanger, both members of the IIT Board of Trustees who did not attend IIT, and John P. Calamos Sr. (ECON ‘63, M.B.A. ‘70), the largest alumni donor in this campaign to date. Philanthropy has long been an im— portant part of IIT’s success and at the Cam— paign Launch we also celebrated the 76 fami— lies who have contributed $1 million or more to the university. Named in honor of Philip Danforth Armour, the university’s found— ing donor, the Armour Society donor wall was unveiled last week as a tribute to these families. I encourage the campus community to visit the beautiful new installation in the MTCC, and to use the iPad display to read about Armour Society members and their connection to the university. Finally, I want to ask the campus community to help share our “What Can’t We Do?” video with your family and friends. Students and alumni have told us that watch— ing the video has made you proud to be a part of IIT. If you haven’t seen it yet, please take a look at fuelinginnovation.iit.edu. I ask you to share this to help raise the visibility of the university outside of campus. We don’t have as many views as IIT’s Harlem Shake, but maybe we’ll catch up! As the campaign progresses, look for news in IIT Today and in TechNews. If you have any questions for me about the cam— paign, I can be reached at hughes@iit.edu.