Solus Meek, marketing mangagement freshman and project lead of Walmart’s Ecomonic Empowerment project, met with Encactus members and classmates Wednesday in Room 218 of Oppenheimer to discuss workshops. Encactus is an international organization, which stands for entrepreneurial, action and us. It is part of the business management course, BMGT 2309, Leadership. They received a $1,500 grant from Wal-Mart in the spring to produce workshops to help women learn job skills. The next class and workshop will teach self-esteem and self-confidence from 10:50 a.m.-12:05 p.m. March 18 in Room 218 of Oppenheimer. Photo by Cynthia M. Herrera
Workshop March 18 teaches self-confidence and self-esteem.
By Travis Doyle
sac-ranger@alamo.edu
Women can learn to boost their self-image at a free workshop from 10:50 a.m.-12:05 p.m. March 18 in Room 318 of Oppenheimer Learning Center.
The Enactus Club and Wal-Mart’s Women’s Economic Empowerment project are sponsoring “Building Self-Confidence and Improving Self-Esteem,” the third in a series of workforce development workshops open to local women.
The series helps them with job preparedness and adult basic education.
Rachel Sandoval, workshop leader and human resources management sophomore, organized the March 18 workshop with other Enactus members. They will discuss building confidence in the workplace.
“Our workshops are going to address self-esteem issues,” Sandoval said. “Sometimes people are so overwhelmed by having cultural barriers, they don’t even talk to people; they don’t even socialize. That creates a feeling of isolation, and that’s what we are trying to address in this workshop by offering techniques and confidence-building ideas.”
The workshop will include relaxation techniques, a self-esteem building exercise, a video about self-esteem called “Ice Breaker” and a questionnaire about why healthy self-esteem is important.
Jacklen Shaia — an international student from Iraq who has been in America for two years — inspired Enactus to form the workshops. She is taking English-as-a-second-language classes to find meaningful employment. The workshops are teaching her résumé building, balancing a budget, confidence building and social media awareness.
“I have learned so much from the workshops,” Shaia said. “They showed me easier ways to pay my bills, how to find work here and what kind of community is here. San Antonio is a new place for me, and the workshops have really helped me adapt.”
Solus Meek, marketing management freshman and project lead for Wal-Mart’s Economic Empowerment project, met Shaia last semester on a bus to campus. Meek asked her if she wanted to be a part of the project.
“We, Enactus, want to help Jacklen get into the job world and get her life going; we submitted an application, based around helping her and other women, to the Empowerment Project and we were accepted,” Meek said.
The campus chapter received a $1,500 grant from Wal-Mart at the beginning of the spring semester to produce the workshops.
The next workshop will be at 10:50 a.m.-12:05 p.m. March 25 in Room 318 of Oppenheimer. It will cover social media awareness and basic computer skills for jobs.
The first two workshops, on Feb. 11 and Feb. 25, were about résumé building and balancing a budget.
Three members of the Empowerment Project — business administration sophomore Desiree Gonzales, business management freshman Erick Lopez and business management sophomore Taisa Caldwell — went to the front of the Feb. 11 class to discuss topics, such as gross income, net income, fixed income, itemized budgeting, savings, expenses and needs versus wants.
Lopez passed a paper to each audience member that listed monthly expenditures and a blank space next to each type for participants to record how much was spent.
Caldwell discussed savings and retirement and how “you should start saving three months ahead of your bills, keeping the estimated amount of money you need for living expenses.”
Lopez discussed how to pay close attention to savings, expenses and income when creating a budget.
The first workshop on Feb. 11 covered how to create winning résumés.
They asked participants about the types of jobs they wanted, what they believe will help achieve this, what obstacles they expect and what skills are needed.
Caldwell described how to add skills to a résumé from previous employments.
“Always go into detail about the improvements you made in your previous job, showing how you have acquired a diverse set of skills over time in your past employments,” Caldwell said. “Your experiences in previous jobs must be clean and concise; it must be able to let an employer focus in on your results and accomplishments.”
Enactus is part of a business management course, BMGT 2309, Leadership. The club meets during the class period, but membership is not limited to those enrolled.
The group meets 10:50 a.m.-12:05 p.m. Monday and Wednesday in Room 318 of Oppenheimer.
Dr. Charles Hunt, professor of management in the business, ACT and criminal justice department, is the instructor and adviser to Enactus.
Each semester new students enroll in the class and tackle projects from the last semester or start new ones for competition. Members from the previous semester work with the current class on projects.
The 22 students who make up Enactus this semester are divided among three projects.
The other two projects are a venture with Unilever to make an aquaponics system out of the greenhouse by Koehler Cultural Center and a project with Sam’s Club that distills pulp from fruits and vegetables to make alcohol fuel.
This college is one of more than 1,600 colleges that work with Enactus and competes with other colleges in an annual contest, according to the enactus.org website.
The campus chapter will compete with 350-400 other colleges April 3-16 in St. Louis.
One team will be named the Enactus United States National Champion and be invited to represent the United States at the Enactus World Cup, according to the Enactus competition page.
For more information, visit the Enactus Facebook page.
