The McDonough School of Business Undergraduate Office announced on Oct. 22 a new group, Undergraduate Women in Business, geared toward engaging women within the MSB.
Associate Director Michelle Sheahan of the McDonough School of Business noted how the group will guide women in the MSB. “Basically, it’s an opportunity for the women in the business school to have mentors and learn from the more senior women at the business school,” she said. “The plan is to pair up senior women at the business school with maybe first and second years to help mentor them along their path.”
Sheahan co-chairs Undergraduate Women in Business along with Associate Dean Patricia Grant and student co-chairs Bridget Morton (MSB ’16) and Caroline Murphy (MSB ’17). Morton expressed how the group will help women develop their business and leadership skills within a safe but challenging environment.
“We’re excited to have tutoring sessions for younger students, especially in perhaps quantitative classes that students find really intimidating as a first or second year student,” said Morton.
The group can accomplish more than tutoring and mentorship though, according to Sheahan, who emphasized that the group can serve as a way to promote gender equality in the business world. “There’s quite a [gender] inequity specifically on corporate boards and obviously there’s [gender] inequities throughout the world,” she said. “[The group will] help [MSB women] climb the corporate, political, or whichever ladder that they choose and be the best leaders that they can be and continue to break the glass ceiling.”
Morton explained that her motivation for helping start the group came through her membership in a similar group at Babson College before transferring to Georgetown. “[Babson] has a really phenomenal women’s leadership program there which I was a part of. When I came to Georgetown I was impressed by how smart all the women were but was looking for a little more, to bond with other women in my major for instance or in my program through these sort of leadership development opportunities.”
Sheahan said that the MSB has been interested in helping women in business well before the creation of this group. In the fall of 2013, the MSB Dean’s office hosted a Women in Business Summit that about 150 students attended, piquing the MSB’s interest in helping women in in business. “That’s when we realized, with Dean Sharpe’s [Senior Associate Dean Norean Sharpe] leadership, that we are in need of having more support resources for the women of our school,” said Sheahan.
The Undergraduate Women in Business is forming its leadership team this week and will have its first members or cohort in the spring of 2016.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct grammatical errors in a quote from Patricia Grant and to reflect the current titles of several individuals mentioned in the story.
