San Diego State University SHRM Chapter Update October

News from the San Diego State University SHRM Chapter

Kelly Huynh, SHRM SDSU President

Like many of us, SHRM SDSU had to abruptly adapt to the changes that came along with the COVID-19 pandemic. With all of us adjusting to a new “normal,” our chapter also had to quickly pivot our meetings, events, and even our Fall 2020 elections to be virtual. Although we did the best we could to quickly transform our events last minute, we unfortunately could not make the switch for our Annual Speed Mentoring Event (but we plan on hosting this event virtually next semester in Spring!). However, for the rest of the Spring semester, as President, I was able to coordinate and mobilize our officers to deliver a Pre-Conference Workshop, two Chapter Planning Meetings, and the Fall 2020 Officer Elections--all virtually. Our efforts to transition to virtual were highlighted in a recent SDSU article .

This semester for Fall 2020, we are pleased to announce that SHRM SDSU has transitioned our Speaker Events and Chapter Planning Meetings to be completely virtual via Zoom. At the beginning of every semester, we always have our officers make classroom visits to pitch our chapter and pass around an interest list. Since that was not a possibility to do this Fall semester, the executive officer team decided to get together over the summer to create a quick video to introduce our chapter and the many benefits that come with becoming a member. This video was sent to the professors to send out to their students to encourage them to stay engaged with on campus organizations even in a remote learning environment.

 
Zoom photo of our Fall 2020 Officers!

With newly implemented marketing tactics, we were able to host a successful Fall 2020 Kick-Off Event via Zoom that brought in a wave of new members. We have also hosted four events in our speaker series including a Cover Letter & Interviewing Workshop, a presentation on Emotional Intelligence presented by SD SHRM’s very own Amanda Duff, a Personal Branding Workshop with Mark Lindner, and an HR Professionals Panel featuring five of our SHRM SDSU alums: Devan Probert, Christine Higgins, Stephanie Grungruth, Lexi Saba, and Suzette Montellano.

Some upcoming events of note include our chapter having a team competing at the CalSHRM HR Case Competition and Student Summit on November 14-15.  The team has been practicing cases and honing their case analysis skills for the past two months with our Faculty Advisor, Dr. Michelle Dean and our Executive-in-Residence, Andy Esparza. Our team consists of SDSU SHRM officers Anna Freeman, Luis Rodriguez, Paul Dominguez, and Joseph Escandon.  We wish the team good luck!  Our members are also looking forward to attending San Diego SHRM’s 5th Annual HR Career Day on November 13th!  It has been a great Fall semester so far and as it winds down, we are preparing to hold our second virtual SHRM Officer Election to install our Spring 2021 officer group.

We are always looking for guest speakers to come talk to our chapter and will begin planning our Spring 2021 programming soon. If you are interested in coming to speak to our student chapter, please reach out to me at shrmsdsu.president@gmail.com . Thank you!