Above, Randy Vicknair, Vice President and Chief Credit Officer at First Guaranty Bank takes pictures with the students who attended his session on "The Financial Crisis of 2008-2009."
Nikisun Shrstha/The Lion's Roar

The College of Business organized Business Week 2016 last week. The program featured presentations from distinguished speakers in the field of business.

The event started on Monday, Oct. 17 and lasted for four days, ending on Thursday, Oct. 20. It was a week that provided opportunity for speakers and students to share and gain knowledge of the business world.     

“I think it’s an excellent learning opportunity, especially for the students who are in college of business because many of us are going into this skill,” said Hannah Reeves, Financial Management Association President. “So we’ve learned about all this stuff in class, but it’s interesting to have somebody who is actually in the industry to come in and tell us ‘Hey this is what did happen’ and to see just how it correlates with everything we’re learning.”

Reeves believes this event equipped students with the knowledge needed to be ready for the job market.

“I always like to see cause they tell us about it and then they say ‘here’s what we can do now, here’s where things are going,’” said Reeves. “So we are finishing our college careers and we’re getting ready to go into the job market. It’s important that we know what to be expecting and where things are progressing towards.

Some of the guest speakers endorsed the idea of Business Week and they approve of the diverse areas of business that the event exposes the students to.

“I think it’s super important, being on the other side of college,” said Allison Ellzey, Social Media Manager at Anntoine Marketing + Design. “I guess I wish I had this when I was in college at Southern Mississippi, but I like that they’re grabbing, cause I saw the list of everybody speaking and I like that they have a diverse amount of people.”

Ellzey hoped the students would be inspired by her presentation.

“I feel like I’m more college age than not, so I like to come and speak,” said Ellzey. “I think it’s a good opportunity for the students to kind of learn from someone who is not far out of college. But, I hope that by coming to speak about what I do and what I do for fun on the side, my blog, then it kinda inspires someone to take that step as well.”

The students were impressed by the event. Graduate assistant Landon Richard attended the presentation on “Social Sourcing as a Recruiting Tool” made by Samantha Shelly, a Corporate Recruiter at PoolCorp, and was complementary of the display.

“I really enjoyed it,” said Richard, Human Resource Management student body President. “She’s a really good speaker and so it was really informative. I think it’s really great. I’m glad they bring actual professionals and who are a local who can really share their experience that they have.”

Richard took this opportunity as a networking experience with the speakers.

“I just know that they tie really well with Southeastern,” said Richard. “So it’s good to have those connections.” 

Samantha Shelly, Corporate Recruiter at PoolCorp, talks about the process of recruiting, the methods of recruiting and some of the challenges faced while working for PoolCorp in her session "Social Sourcing as a Recruiting Tool."
Nikisun Shrestha/The Lion's Roar