My First Welcome to the Majors

Welcome to the Majors Spring 2018

Every Fall and Spring Semesters, Welcome to the Majors is the largest “lecture” to acquaint students in GEB3003 with the College of Business and all the opportunities that the college offers. Thank you to all ambitious students, supportive faculty, generous corporate partners, selfless volunteers and our keynote speaker, Nick Riggle, Ph.D. for creating a wildly successful event for engagement and learning.

We hope that each student took the opportunity to connect with an RSO, corporate partner and/or a department. As you may recall, Dean Jarley spoke about “Getting to the One.” In a college of 8,000 students, it may seem daunting to stand out to in a crowd. However, Dean Jarley illustrated it is doable by taking advantage of opportunities when others may not.

This semester, our keynote speaker and author of On Being Awesome: A Unified Theory of How Not to Suck, was particularly awesome because he was relatable to students and gave a fresh take on the importance of individuality. Nick Riggle, Ph.D. described the world as having generally two kinds of people…people who are awesome (including those who are down, chill and game) and people who suck (including those who are not down, lame and kill joys). Dr. Riggle used many descriptive examples such as Jeremy Fry, the guy that got up and danced during halftime at a Celtics game to a timeless Bon Jovi song (Check out the video Jeremy Fry at Celtics Game), to describe how awesome people create social openings. Social Openings can be as simple are showing your sense of humor during a routine conversation with a barista at your go-to coffee shop or going out of your way to do something kind for someone else. The same idea is applicable to networking. If you create social openings when you approach your peers, your professors and corporate partners, it makes the conversations more natural, comfortable and memorable.

As the Ambassadors of the College of Business, we encourage you to create social openings and foster connections with peers, faculty and corporate partners because you never know where those relationships will lead you.