Women in Business Association: Uniting to empower women at USU

The Women in Business Association welcomes everyone. It is a club within the Huntsman School of Business that focuses on empowering women at USU and connecting them with others. 

LeAnn Ravsten, a senior at USU studying data analytics, is the president of WIBA for the 2022-2023 school year.  

“It’s an all inclusive club that anyone can join, regardless of any major and it’s a place where we encourage, empower and uplift those in the club to — as the Huntsman motto says — dare mighty things, in all aspects of their life,” Ravsten said.  

The club has three advisers who work as faculty in the Huntsman School of Business.  

Lianne Wappett is the Huntsman Scholar program director and has served as a WIBA adviser for five years. Carmella Johns-Andruk is the senior manager of corporate relations for the  business school and joined WIBA as an adviser in 2020. Lastly, Kristyn Allred is the director of the She’s Daring Mighty Things initiative within WIBA.  

“When I first started, WIBA had maybe 10 students in the organization,” Wappett said. “So we did a reboot, I had two co-presidents at the time because there were two women who wanted to be involved. That was the board and the president and everything in between. There was a lot of hustling that first year, but it’s grown, and it continues to grow.” 

Wappett said that since she became adviser to the club it has seen tremendous growth. Johns-Andruk said they usually have about 150 to 200 people who attend their activities.  

They also encourage their club members to bring along friends or partners to their activities, emphasizing that everyone is welcome.  

There is no national organization for WIBA, but Wappett said there are different groups of WIBA spread around the country. The one at USU came from the idea of students who wanted a place to be empowered and grow together.  

“It really just sort of came from the idea that all students matter at the Huntsman school, and we know in many of our majors, women are underrepresented,” Wappett said. “We needed to create a place for them, where they can build their confidence in skills they may be lacking so they are successful in their careers.”  

As president of the club, Ravsten leads a board that includes her vice president Emma Mecham and nine other board members. After being appointed president, Ravsten played a major role in building her board of female students she thought would make a great leadership team.  

“I took a lot of time to pick my board because I really believe leadership is with the whole team,” Ravsten said. “It’s not just whoever’s president, my board is absolutely incredible. I feel I can give anyone any assignment and I know it’ll get done because we’ve developed this respect and appreciation for the hard work everyone puts in.” 

The board works together to lead the organization, plan events and complete all other tasks necessary in running the club.  

“It’s these young women’s leadership that really has coalesced into this organization,” Johns-Andruk said. “It’s become a professional organization where there’s a president and a vice president and the marketing team, and the events team and all of those different groups have very specific responsibilities.” 

This year, the WIBA board came together in unity after one of the board members, Emily Fisher, died in a car accident in January.  

Fisher was a senior at USU from South Jordan, Utah studying Business Management who was planning to graduate this spring. She served on the WIBA board as an event coordinator.  

“It was really a cool experience to watch the board come together,” Ravsten said. “It was something that everyone was like ‘I need to be there for the person sitting next to me.’ We’re gonna get through this together and talking through the impact she had on our lives and the sweet spirit she brought.” 

Ravsten said they decided not to replace Fisher on the board for the rest of the year because she is still a member of their board.  

WIBA strives to make their events meaningful and useful for all those who attend. They also try to hold a variety of events throughout the year.  

The club kicks off each year with the She’s Daring Mighty Things event. Home events have speakers from different companies and organizations. 

The club holds workshops and interactive activities, which involve other clubs on campus and female executives in companies the Huntsman school or the advisers have a connection with.  

“We’ve tried to be very strategic about the kind of events we host,” Johns-Andruk said. “We adjusted the kind of event to be more interactive. Students are not just sitting in their chairs, listening to something. They’re in a roundtable with other professionals. And they’re workshopping on whatever the topic is.” 

Along with the other events WIBA holds throughout the year, the club also focuses on service. They held an event this year to raise money for the Student Nutrition Access Center on campus.  

They also reached out to a young women’s leadership organization at the Edith Bowen Laboratory School. Members of WIBA were able to share with the girls things they have learned and help empower them.  

“​​We want to start them having the idea in their mind early, because a lot of what we try and overcome is these preconceived notions that they’ve been raised with, maybe they are supposed to stay in Utah, and be a certain way or whatever,” Johns-Andruk said. “You can pretty much do anything you want. And the core of all of that is to get a great education and to get your degree, and then go explore and live life to its fullest, and be an asset to your family, to your community and to the world.”  

 Ravsten said she has worked to make WIBA a club where everyone has a place and where they can learn they are valuable.  

“Everyone has something important to say and to bring to the table,” Ravsten said. “There’s something so powerful and having a diverse perspective on things, because one person may have been raised one way and had this outlook on life and someone else will have a different opinion on things, and being able to create a space where you can work and talk with those people.”