News
Club heads to Big Apple
by Nellie Summerfield
Indiana Daily Student
Business students from IU are heading to the Big Apple in hopes of finding their future jobs.
Thirty-two members of the Business Careers in Entertainment Club are preparing to take their second annual trip to New York to network with employees in the entertainment business.
“This trip is beneficial because we represent IU and the Kelley School of Business and expect the people who go to act professional,” said Executive Vice President of BCEC junior Jonathan Levey. “We’re hoping the professionalism will rub off on (the employees) and they will come to IU to recruit employees.”
The club was started in the summer of 2002 by former IU student Edward Anderson, who currently works in Atlanta.
“IU has great business contacts, but it lacks jobs and internships in the entertainment field,” said President of BCEC senior Robert Rosenthal. “Eddie decided he could either deal with this, transfer or go after his dreams, so he started contacting people to start an entertainment business club.”
After just two years, the club has approximately 150 paying members, and 600 people on their mailing list, Rosenthal said.
On their trip to New York in January, the club members will tour the company, meet with business employees who are middle- to upper-level executives, ask questions and see what a job in the entertainment business entails.
“Last year when we were at CNN, there were news columnists that were able to talk to us, which was really cool,” Rosenthal said. “It goes to show you meet a lot of people in the entertainment industry, even in the business part of it.”
The members will meet with businesses including MTV, Nickelodeon, Spike TV, NBC and Sirius.
“We’re hoping in the future they will look at IU for possible employees after our business because it’s hard to get in,” Levey said. “It’s like a fraternity network, and it’s not who you know, it’s who knows you and who likes you.”
Though the club has been busy planning its annual trip to New York, it holds other networking events and fund-raisers, and sponsors guest speakers through the year.
President of the National Association of Record Industry Professionals Tess Taylor spoke to BCEC members Monday evening and gave a speech Tuesday night as well.
“(NARIP) is the largest organization of music industry professionals, and she is the president,” Rosenthal said. “Anyone who is anyone is in this (business) works there.”
The club is also currently selling 10% discount cards, planning a Super Bowl party and planning a portfolio workshop for its members.
“The portfolio workshop helps members out because they bring in their resume to have it tweaked,” Levey said. “We take them to Kinko’s after they’re done and send them to the places that we visited in NYC as a group.”
Though the club is planning events for the spring semester, members are currently focused on planning the New York Trip.
“We hope it will be a helpful experience for all the members going,” Rosenthal said.
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