Campers spent today on their third session of Minnesota Business Venture. Today’s opening keynote speaker was Roz Tsai, VP of Talent, Learning, & Effectiveness at Thrivent. Roz encouraged students to work for the greater good and think about what each of them deeply cares about. Roz also taught students about the importance of leadership and how it is such a crucial asset in any organization.
Today was Career Day, sponsored by the University of St. Thomas, Schulze School of Entrepreneurship. Speakers from Securian Financial, Artisan Financial, Enterprise Internship, and the University of Minnesota, took time to teach some important career insight. Breakout sessions included How to Get Ahead in Today’s Job Market, Interview Skills, Jobs of the Future, and Resume Workshop.
Our next keynote speaker was returning guest, Jesse Ross. Ross encouraged students to reflect and figure out what important talents, skills, and assets they have to offer. He ran through presentation tips and explained how to become a memorable speaker, performer, and conversationalist. Jesse tells students to include the 4 E’s while talking or presenting to any sort of audience. Be exciting, engaging, educating, and entertaining! As Ross stated, “young people are the future.” This means each and every one of these bright students has the ability and potential to share their talents and ideas with the world.
Our student emcee, Khadra Sharif rolled us into the next part of the day where camper shout outs and announcements were made. This was followed by Ask An Influencer featuring Dessa! Dessa is a rapper, writer, and performer who followed her dreams by taking a few risks and now spends her time in a rewarding and enjoyable career. Students had the opportunity to ask Dessa any questions about her journey to where she stands today and what challenges she may have had to face. Dessa’s message is to try new things and get out of your comfort zone. There may be some bumps along the way, but in the end we regret the opportunities we didn’t take.
The day ended with students putting their skills to the test in the traditional mock interview. From this mock interview, students’ strengths were highlighted by interviewers who also gave feedback on areas they could work on. This is a great activity for students to prepare for future interviews entering different workforces and careers. It gave students a guideline for resume building and displaying, as well as different examples of possible interview questions and concepts.
Thank you for joining us for another great day of MBV. Join us tomorrow for the last day of Minnesota Business Venture’s first session of the summer!