Back in November of 2020 Diana Vasselin, Julie Lawhon, and I went to the senior leadership at JWU Patrick Stack, Jeff Longo, and Sean C. Baldwin, Ph.D. because the 4th annual Forum for Professional Development had not happened this year, an event that is student-organized and executed, an event that is extremely valuable to our student body. The three of us volunteered to organize this event although we would not receive class credit as in years past.
After months of planning, the Forum happened yesterday and it could not have gone better! Things were kicked off with an emotional, raw, and insightful speech from our keynote speaker Brandon Cullen about overcoming adversity and setbacks to find success. Students attended two breakout sessions to learn from the top industry professionals on topics they chose! Students also engaged with recent alumni in two roundtable sessions to discuss what it is like to get into the real world, how JWU prepared the alumni, and how to break into the industry.
Over the past few days, emails have been pouring in from everyone that attended speaking their praises for the event and how successful they found it. That feedback and my own experience at the Forum made all the hard work and sacrifice the past few months so worth it!