Seattle Chapter 2007 Student Summit

By Jenny Guevara, Public Relations Co-Chair and Maria Villa, President

October 13, 2007 – The ALPFA Seattle Chapter hosted its annual student summit: ‘Succeeding as a Young Professional’ which brought together over 140 attendees, including students from both Washington and Oregon universities and community colleges. The summit took place at the Michael G. Foster School of Business on the University of Washington campus.

Genaro Perez Jr., ALPFA North Regional Director, and also Director of Client Service at Resources Global Professionals, was the key-note speaker for the event. Genaro opened the summit and delighted the audience with his energy, and unique way of delivering his message on the importance of standing out from the crowd in order to succeed as a young professional.

The summit offered 3 workshops as follows:

  • Selling Yourself in Today's Marketplace - Sponsored by Microsoft, Presented by Alejandro Cabrera Global Advertising Product Manager and Mauricio Cuevas Finance Manager,
    Online Services Division.
  • The power of Making Connections - Sponsored by Prudential Financial, Presented by Joneil Custodio, West Coast Diversity Local Relationship Manager.
  • Young Professionals...Business Beyond the Books - Sponsored by ALPFA, Presented by Tatiana Deras, Financial Analyst, Morgan Stanley, Robert Miller, Compliance Program Manager, Microsoft, and Jesse Sanchez Associate, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Once sessions finalized, students had the opportunities to participate in the career fair where about 10 national and international companies were present, such as Weyerhaeuser, KPMG, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, INROADS, , and State Farm Insurance.

The Student Outreach Committee ran a survey to get participants feedback. We found that all workshops met participant’s expectations. The workshop that students liked the most was the “Selling Yourself in Today’s Marketplace” by Microsoft, this presentation was very effective, and in particular presenters kept the audience’s attention throughout the presentation by making good eye contact and being funny and energetic.

‘It is critical to get timely feedback from the participants once the event is concluded, this will help us to plan in advance future events and meet expectations of our members and potential members’

Special thanks to Yaneth Gonzalez, Student Outreach Co-chair, who put tremendous efforts to make this event a successful one. Special thanks to lead sponsors of the event KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Prudential Financial, and Microsoft.