Jamie Vinick, a sophomore marketing major, started the Women in Leadership Club, WIL, at Syracuse University as an answer to the lack of professional connection networks for women.

“There wasn’t anything on campus that connected young female students to female professionals,” Vinick said. “I also think that it is important to discuss unforeseeable issues, invisible barriers and unconscious bias that we don’t talk about in the intimacy of a classroom.”

SU students tend to join clubs that are related to their major, leaving Vinick unable to connect with students from other schools. So, she created an organization that brings women from all majors together.

The concept began after the 2016 presidential election. Vinick said she wanted to bring people together in a time when everyone seemed to be moving apart. She knew, though, that it would be difficult to get students to come to a non-political political club. Instead, she broadened the idea and came up with Women in Leadership. She presented the idea to her roommate, Nina Hind, and the two founded the organization.

For the first informational meeting, Vinick booked a small room in Bird Library that held about 100 people, and she expected to attract 20-30 students. What Vinick wasn’t expecting was 180 people showing up to the meeting.

“It was shocking to say the least,” she said. “But I think we hit a nerve. Our message really resonates with people. There are so many invisible barriers to women’s advancement.”

Their first guest speakers were a woman CNN anchor and a Stanford University MBA grad who told their professional stories. Vinick finds most of the club’s speakers through LinkedIn. In choosing the speakers, the group tries to touch on different industries.

“We all have different struggles and failures, but we have been able to learn from those failures and grow and apply those to a lot of our successes,” Vinick said. “Acknowledging that although our experiences have been different, it all relates back to gender-related issues.”

In the upcoming weeks, the organization is having a “Mocktails” event for young people to network with women professionals, and an SU alumna is flying in to speak to the club members. At the end of the semester, some members of WIL will get the opportunity to go on a trip to New York City to meet women executives at businesses such as Goldman Sachs and Baked by Melissa.

Vinick’s favorite part about the club so far is meeting new people and learning from the speakers.

“You don’t get this experience in a classroom,” she said. “Gender is a very awkward topic, and it’s important to have a place for people who are going through similar issues to discuss their experiences.”

In the future, Vinick hopes to expand the club to other colleges. She has already had several people reach out to her who want to create their own WIL chapter.

“I want to create a website and then hopefully from there, I want to create a national community,” Vinick said.

Published on October 30, 2017 at 10:27 pm