The Core of the CEO Network is its Leaders:

Building Business Leaders is an experiential learning seminar tailored to engage under-represented minority students early in their academic experience. Students are advised in a holistic manner from multiple points of contact which include upper class-men, faculty and professional role models. The seminars are designed to be taken in a series starting winter term of a first year (or fall term of a student’s second year).

To review the full curriculum guide click here to go to BA199 Building Business Leaders Blog. Students who complete both stages of Building Business Leaders are officially “certified” CEO Network members. CEO Network students are known for their exceptional ability to:

1. Clearly articulate who they are and what they intend to accomplish with their college education.
2. Show how their academic and co-curricular experiences help them achieve their goals.
3. Identify the opportunities needed in order to help students accomplish their short and long term goals.

Stage I:  Who am I and What do I add?

These lessons ask students to think critically about their own personal development. Students evaluate their strengths and weaknesses reflecting on how their characteristics play out in the academic, personal and social arenas of their lives. The goal of the lessons is to give each student a framework for mapping their core values and interests onto what they would want to do with their lives.

 

 

Stage II:  Transition from Student to Young Professional

These lessons guide students through a process to build their “sticky stories” into tools for job searching such as LinkedIn, resumes and networking events. Students go to “practice” events to begin to develop confidence in engaging with professional role models.  Activities include rehearsing basic introductions (elevator pitches), and going to informational interviews with professional role models. The class final project is a three-minute oral presentation of their “Who am I” personal brand. The presentations are given in front of a panel of professionals.

 

The Building Business Leaders Seminar is lead by Tayah Butler, the founder of the program and full-time adviser and leader to its students. Three to four “teaching assistants” join her in the seminars as role models and peer mentors to the participants.  Mentors play a critical role in transitioning first and second year students to College of Business culture. Many “graduates” of BBL have continued on to fill executive leadership roles in Lundquist College of Business student clubs that they were introduced to by their first year mentor. Eight former leaders of Building Business Leaders have been accepted into the Lundquist College of Business Honors Program.

To express interest in taking a Building Business Leaders Seminar email the Oregon Building Business Leaders Chair at oregonbbl@gmail.com- leave your name, home town and contact information!

Continue reading about opportunities for BBL students… or meet the students who have completed the series.