Congrats to our 5 new Senators! Read their candidate profiles below!
Austin Quinn
Year in School:
3rd Year
Major:
Finance
Current activities and involvements:
Delta Sigma Pi, Beta Gamma Sigma, Order of Omega, HawksTrade, Dance Marathon, Global Health Club, Phi Eta Sigma, Phi Kappa Psi
Why do you want to be a Tippie Senator?
I want to be a Tippie Senator because I love the Tippie community and the diverse set of people it serves. Although I feel that the community does a great job of offering an expansive set of opportunities for students to become involved and develop themselves professionally, I feel motivated to work towards improving the overall inclusiveness and culture of the community during my remaining time here. I feel there is still an exciting amount of room for improvement and opportunity and I would be honored to work towards making a Tippie a uniquely accepting home while providing new valuable opportunities for students.
What would you like to change or improve in the Tippie College of
Business?
– Increased opportunities for undergraduates to develop resumes and their overall professional profiles in their undergraduate years as students are gradually taking more internships early in their collegiate careers.
– Developing an overall alumni contact book (likely utilizing alumni within the last 5-7 years so their experience is more applicable to current students) tailored to each field of study to increase accessibility to alumni contacts, provide assistance in the job search process and enhance alumni relations as a whole.
– An increased collaboration with other departments towards philanthropic efforts in order to establish a strong reputation as leaders on campus and in the community. Due to the sheer size of our student body and the relevant connections our students have made within the community, I feel we have a great opportunity to cement our school with a reputation as service-based, ethical business leaders.
– Increase education to incoming freshmen regarding the current requirements and common working conditions/trends within their respective field of study. I feel as if many incoming freshmen ofter pick a major without adequate information related to the intricacies of the professional requirements and big-picture utility of their degree after graduation. More informed students will inevitably be able to select a major that better suits their interests early in their careers.
– An overall increase in opportunities for creating their own businesses on campus with the support of university resources. The more Tippie essentially subsidizes student innovation on campus, the more the school will offer to a demographic that typically feels marginalized by the typical academic structure of college.
Talk about a time where you had to work with a group to make a policy
decision or plan an event? How did you contribute and what did you
accomplish?
During my time serving as the President of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, I alongside my executive council had to implement a plethora of policies related to the overall objectives of our chapter, alongside planning and managing the logistics of Chapter events. One specific example that stands out during this experience was when our Chapter decided to raise our new member GPA requirement from 2.5 to 2.75. As a chapter that has historically taken pride in our emphasis on organization academic achievement, I felt this was a necessary policy decision in order to ensure we were recruiting the right kind of new members into the organization. In order to effectively express the intent behind the change, I organized a chapter meeting in which I articulated, alongside members of the executive council, the intended purpose behind this change before opening the floor to feedback. My primary rationale behind making this adjustment to our chapter bylaws was founded on the basic concept that “people will ofter elevate their performance consistent to the level of your expectations”. Through effectively corresponding with my executive council alongside including the entire chapter in the process of establishing the policy, our chapter saw an overall increase in the average new member GPA average over the following two semesters.
Allison Zucker
Year in School:
3rd Year
Major:
Marketing Management
Current activities and involvements:
Marketing Institute, American Marketing Association, Women in Business, Social Media for the Ballet Club, Sales Associate at Orangetheory Fitness
Why do you want to be a Tippie Senator?
I want to be a Tippie Senator because I want to be able to help make students’ experience in Tippie as great as possible. I am getting an International Business Certificate and will be doing an internship in Barcelona this summer, so I am very passionate about making international students feel welcome and included within Tippie. I have also interned for the Health and Human Physiology Department at Iowa and helped them with branding, as well as completed branding projects for clients in Marketing institute. Overall, since being a direct admit my freshman year, I would love to be a part of the group that makes Tippie a better place for future students!
What would you like to change or improve in the Tippie College of
Business?
I would love for there to be more networking events within Tippie. When I was a freshman, I didn’t know many other Tippie students and only made friends in my classes. I think it would be great to have a big networking event/party in the beginning of each semester for people to get to know each other within the college. This can also be a great way for people to learn about different student orgs. I also worked on a podcast project last semester with the prompt “how can Tippie students gain cultural intelligence without studying abroad?” and we went with the angle of encouraging students to get to know more international students and learn from them. This also came with similar ideas that Tippie Senate is currently working on, which is making sure that academic advisors are familiar with how to guide international students, as well as making sure professors are being inclusive (assigning group projects instead of letting students pick). Lastly, I think that Tippie should be advertising the Frank Center more for classes. In Marketing Institute, we are working on rebranding the Frank Center and giving them a strategic plan for how to gain more student usage. Since the Frank Center is specific to Tippie, the consultants are very familiar with the various Tippie class assignments and can provide assistance, but many students don’t know about it or how helpful it is. I think if it were advertised and promoted more, Tippie students would have a much better experience with difficult assignments, which will make their Tippie experience better overall.
Talk about a time where you had to work with a group to make a policy
decision or plan an event? How did you contribute and what did you
accomplish?
As a longstanding Sales Associate at Orangetheory Fitness, I have developed more responsibilities over the years. I often help organize and plan the challenges/events we hold. This year I helped my boss plan the 8-week Transformation Challenge. I got members to sign up for $30, divided all of the members into 3 different teams led by the coaches, came up with different challenges for each week, kept track of each team’s points, and helped my boss plan the final winner announcement party and happy hour at Big Grove. Helping plan and execute Transformation Challenge 2022 was a lot of fun and was a great experience helping our members get healthier.
Gianna Nardulli
Year in School:
2nd Year
Major:
Marketing and Business Analytics
Current activities and involvements:
Business Student Ambassador Organization, Alpha Kappa Psi, Tippie Business Honors Society, and Tippie Real Estate Club
Why do you want to be a Tippie Senator?
I want to be a Tippie Senator to be a voice of change within the Tippie College of Business, and work for students to feel like their voices are heard and valued. Tippie Senate is a team built on improving the student experience. My experience of coming to the University in the spring semester instead of the fall provides me with a unique perspective that I could use to be the voice of transfer and non-traditional students. Tippie has excellent opportunities to offer its students, but there is always room for growth. I see areas of development for these students that I want to change actively. I also recognize that every student has their own experience and challenges that come from their background. I want to hear about their challenges and work towards improving aspects for all students in Tippie.
What would you like to change or improve in the Tippie College of
Business?
Currently, the Tippie College of Business fails to provide enough resources to adequately support transfer and nontraditional students. As someone who deferred my enrollment by a semester, I understand how overwhelming and intimidating navigating coursework and extracurriculars can be. If I had not known students on campus before coming in the spring semester, I would not have known how to get involved so quickly within Tippie. Most transfer and nontraditional students are not as lucky. I want to create a program targeted to these students in which they receive information about Tippie clubs and involvement opportunities. I also plan to work with clubs to make sure they recruit new students every semester instead of just in the fall. Additionally, I want to pair each transfer or nontraditional student with a heavily involved Tippie student to help them navigate their first few weeks on campus. If the Tippie College of Business becomes more inclusive to transfer and non-traditional students, it will foster an environment where all students can thrive. This is something I hope to accomplish if elected to Tippie Senate.
Talk about a time where you had to work with a group to make a policy
decision or plan an event? How did you contribute and what did you
accomplish?
Within my business fraternity, I am currently serving as the Assistant Director of Membership, where I support the curriculum of new members to lead them through membership. In this curriculum, we are tasked with enhancing their professional development and fostering an inclusive environment through weekly meetings and events with active members. Within this role, I have been able to create and help facilitate two events. My responsibilities for these events include
• reserving academic spaces
• requesting and receiving funding
• collaborating with other student organizations
• ensuring all requirements of events were met
After these events were completed, I felt like I had helped accomplish inclusivity and helped foster new relationships within our fraternity. Working with other student organizations promotes the overall culture of collaboration within the Tippie College of Business. These skills would be directly applicable to serving on Tippie Senate, and I am excited about the potential opportunity to do so.
Abigail Davitt
Year in School:
2nd Year
Major:
Marketing
Current activities and involvements:
Alpha Kappa Psi, Club Soccer, Tippie Business Honor Society, Phi Eta Sigma
Why do you want to be a Tippie Senator?
Tippie Senate is an organization I was recently introduced to and immediately interested in. The events and tables in Tippie always serve a purpose and encourage students to use their voice- which is something I want to help do. We are the ones going through the classes, organizations, and day to day routines in Tippie so it only makes sense that we have the best insight on how to make it a better place. I sat in on a Senate meeting and really enjoyed the conversations and ideas that were discusses. It seems like this group of people challenges and pushes each other while still offering support, which is a hard but essential balance. I think my ideas and work ethic will fit in with the group and I will be able to positively contribute. Senate will also help me to be more involved with Tippie and see what really goes into making change happen.
What would you like to change or improve in the Tippie College of
Business?
Tippie is very responsive and a great school to be a part of, but I would love to see more efforts for DEI. Recently in my classes I’ve been learning a lot about DEI programs and standards implemented in organizations and businesses. Before college, I had no idea what DEI was and had never been exposed to the issues that are in basically every work environment. While I think we do a decent job at Tippie, we could take a step further and make it a priority in classes, seminars, and student orgs. My first-year classes didn’t discuss DEI at all, but I wish they would have. Learning about DEI has personally shifted my perspective and tremendously grown my awareness.
Talk about a time where you had to work with a group to make a policy
decision or plan an event? How did you contribute and what did you
accomplish?
This is the year I’ve recently started getting involved in student orgs, so I am looking forward to getting to work on group events. In high school, I was very involved in clubs and extracurriculars. I was head of the business committee for our schools dance marathon and was in charge of running a small group responsible for bringing in big donations. Our team had to set agendas, action plans, and meetings with companies we may have been unfamiliar with. We worked together to build our portfolio from scratch and set the foundation for the next years to come. After 6 months of preparation, the event happened and we raised over $25,000. I was so happy to be a part of the start of the organization and watch it grow for 3 more years until I graduated. This coming year, I am hoping to hold an exec position within my business fraternity and a board position on the soccer team. I’ll use my skills I developed the past few years to keep growing and gaining perspective.
Thomas Burgfechtel
Year in School:
1st Year
Major:
Economics and Finance, Russian minor
Current activities and involvements:
Hawktrade, Alpha Kappa Psi, financial management association, red cross
club, and Intramural sports
Why do you want to be a Tippie Senator?
Since coming from Iowa I have absolutely loved the community that the students of the business building have and their ability to grow closer to one another throughout the amazing spaces within Tippie. This community has been in the short time that I have been here has been what has made Iowa a home rather than just a school. Because of this being able to be a senator would provide the ability to work with other students my age to be able to make a change to make sure that other people get the same or an even better experience than I have with the Tippie College of Business.
What would you like to change or improve in the Tippie College of
Business?
One of the biggest things that I always think about when I think of Tippie is how can we share this with other people at the school. For instance, some of my best friends are engineer majors or pre-med majors, and I was wondering why it is that they would never come to study at Tippie. I thought that it was a very nice building and couldn’t quite understand why they wouldn’t want to come. After asking them I learned that not only does Tippie not have some of the tutors and other physical tools that they might get at the say Seamen’s center but they also felt uncomfortable as if they did not belong. This is something that I would like to work really hard to change because as a business major we will be working with a lot of people from different educational backgrounds, so we should work to be able to
work with them now.
Talk about a time where you had to work with a group to make a policy
decision or plan an event? How did you contribute and what did you
accomplish?
During my time in high school, I was quite involved with student leadership groups called the PALS (peer-assisted leadership) and WINGS (freshmen mentoring group). Beyond what we did to help the younger students through their tough times we would help to plan a lot of our red ribbon week which was a big week of awareness in our school where we would help urge kids to remain drug-free. This required us all to come up with many different themes and events for each of the days including dress-up days, speeches on announcements, and even fun themed games to help raise awareness for drug abuse and the dangers of drugs. This was a particularly hard challenge for us because of the 200 other people in the leadership groups that we had to coordinate and get everyone on board but this was also the best part because we got some very creative ideas and work with people with lots of very diverse stories that were able to shed new light on the mission behind our events.
