By DYLAN DEMARTINO
STAFF WRITER
Fordham Digital Business Society helps students understand how technology is integrated into the professional world. (Photo by Elizabeth Zanghi/The Ram)
The Fordham Digital Business Society (FDBS) has been off to a strong start this year with a diverse line-up of events. The new Fordham club seeks to help all students use technology to develop both personal and professional skills.
Founded last year and made an official Fordham club at the start of this semester, FDBS welcomes students of all majors and skill levels.
Started with the mindset of helping Fordham students get ahead of the rapidly expanding tech sector in an increasingly competitive global economy, the club offers valuable resources to students looking to get the most out of their Fordham education.
The semester kickoff meeting introduced the club to a larger audience and highlighted the ambitious programming goals of the organization, including hosting a series of workshops designed to help Fordham students learn new skills.
The meeting also connected Fordham students with featured speaker Paul Cooney, FCRH ’12, a YouTube partnership manger with AOL. Cooney spoke about his experience working for a company that has, in many ways, reinvented itself to become a larger player in the online content field. He also spoke about his day-to-day functions monitoring the content in AOL brand presence on YouTube.
Cooney also discussed how his education at Fordham and his hard work outside the classroom helped him with his success today.
Cooney stressed the importance of taking your education to the next level inside and outside of the classroom. He emphasized the importance of cultivating personalized niche skills when developing a career.
“It’s important that you find something that you’re passionate about and take it as far as you can so that you can build a career that makes a difference in people’s lives instead of just grinding 9-to-5 and not advancing your knowledge beyond the classroom,” Cooney said.
Cooney’s speech was well received by the attending students who were eager to hear of a recent student’s success.
Stephen Loukellis, GSB ’14, said he “found it really inspiring to hear the perspective of a recent Fordham graduate who broke into the creative sector.”
In addition to its kick-off meeting, DBS also hosted a career panel on Sept. 24, on careers emphasizing technology. Ernest and Young, JP Morgan, Alpha Sights and Deloitte were all present to discuss how their companies integrate technology into their business operations.
Panelists also discussed how they had built their careers by understanding and utilizing technology in the professional field.
Some companies featured additional Fordham graduates in their panel personnel.
The participant’s professional panel also answered student questions and presented an excellent networking opportunity for Fordham students to gain connections to each of the present companies.
The students’ overall response seemed to indicate that the opportunity to learn about how certain fields of study can increase competitiveness in the job market is a valued component of DBS’s events.
“As a transfer student, I was sort of nervous about how exactly I was going to go about establishing a professional network here at Fordham,” Miles Toth, GSB ’16, said. “But after attending DBS’ events, I feel much more confident that there are quality resources here for me to build skills and make crucial professional connections.”
The Digital Business Society will be hosting its next event, the first installment of its “Industry Insights” series, on Thursday Oct. 10. It is going to feature Doug Benedicto of Chartbeat, which is a real-time web analytics company.
