Student Ambassador Success Conference: A Chance for These Lopers to Shine

Posted: November 19, 2024 12:00:00 AM CST

The Student Ambassador Success Conference at the Bowling Green Allen W. and Carol M. Schmidthorst College of Business recently welcomed UNK students Emily Conrad, Nathan Grabenstein, Molly Kiekel, Kailynn Rodewald, Isabella Townsend, and Cooper Witte. While there, these CBT Student Ambassadors were able to put into practice what they have been learning in their classes as well as experience what their future as an organization can look like.Group Picture

For Emily Conrad, the conference was “an incredible experience to learn from the Bowling Green College of Business Ambassadors.” She appreciates the opportunity to learn ways to develop leadership skills but also to learn more about the “structure and processes the BGSU Ambassadors use to build student engagement and recruitment.” She shares how this was especially important because UNK’s program is young. The conference encouraged her by showing her an example of where UNK could be in the future if growth and development are priorities. 

At the conference, Emily was aware of how “the networking and communication skills” from her CBT classes were useful as she had a new opportunity to “learn from others and build on both (her) professional and personal skills.” She shares how she left the conference with “a great vision of the potential” of the CBT Student Ambassador Program as well as “some practical first steps to take.” She is excited to “start implementing some fun student engagement opportunities” at the College of Business and Technology.

Nathan Grabenstein shares how “the main points” he brought back from the conference were “about gaining program exposure and establishing sustainability within the program.” He is grateful to have had the chance to learn about Business Student Ambassador programs from other schools across the U.S. as well as Canada.

Molly and IsabellaHe explains that he was “able to use the networking skills” that he had developed as a student at UNK while he interacted “with other students and faculty at the conference.” He credits his professors and their style of teaching for giving him the “exposure to talking to new people and making connections” that was useful while at the conference. Nathan is looking forward to “creating program-specific events and speaking in freshman-level classes about the program” as a way to improve the future of the CBT Student Ambassador Program. 

Molly Kiekel “learned important leadership skills” while attending the conference. She states that it was “also a great experience” to get her out of her “comfort zone and learn from experienced students.” She feels that her CBT classes helped her to “be more confident when talking to people (she) didn’t know” at the conference. 

Now that she is back on campus,  Molly is looking forward to implementing plans for not only the ambassadors but for the entire College of Business and Technology. One area in particular that she would like to work on involves increasing student engagement. 

Kailynn Rodewald, who admits she had “little idea of what to expect going into it,” is grateful that the conference “turned out to be an invaluable learning experience” for not only the program but for her own personal development. She shares that the biggest takeaway” she got from the conference was “simply what a successful ambassador's program could look like.” Thanks to her experiences at this conference, she shares that she now has not only a vision but knowledge of the steps needed to grow UNK’s program.  

Kailynn credits her “experiences at UNK in communicating with others, asking good questions, and not being afraid to put (herself) out there and make connections” for helping her to make strong connections at the conference. She brought back to campus a goal to put into practice the advice she received from the successful ambassadors she was privileged to meet while at Bowling Green.

Isabella Townsend shares how she learned “networking skills” as well as practical skills about how to start, structure, and manage an organization while at the conference. She believes the “experiential learning at UNK” helped her and her fellow Lopers “stand out against others” because of the “action-based classes that help people develop for the future in real-life scenarios.” She is grateful because the dedication of her professors “really shows how committed the College of Business and Technology” is to getting students “the best education and head start” to their careers. Emily and Kaylinn

Cooper Witte admits that a lot of his time at UNK “revolves around the ambassador program.” He shares that he really enjoys helping out and “getting the opportunity to travel to other schools and share (his) experiences with others.” At Bowling Green, he learned “better communication skills, leadership skills, different ways to approach conversations, and overall better ways to expand (his) network.” 

Thanks to the experiences he has had in his classes as a CBT student, he felt that he was prepared for the conference due to his “confidence when approaching others and sharing (his) ideas as well as helping others expand their own ideas and giving them good advice and guidance.” He explains that he wants “to give students more opportunities during on-campus events to connect with other people and even connect with future employers.”

These six students are excited to start using the ideas they learned about at the conference to grow the CBT Student Ambassador Program. Their dedication to not only their own college experience but that of others is part of what sets them apart and exemplifies the stellar opportunities available to everyone at UNK’s College of Business and Technology.

 

Related Pages: Let Us Introduce UNK’s College of Business and Technology’s Ambassadors

By: Sandy Brannan

Category: Business and Technology, General

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