You would expect the Finance Club and Marketing club to be part of the many group offerings Evening and Weekend students take advantage of, but you might not know that Booth has 45 active student-led groups. From Social Impact and Wellness, to India and Poker Club, there’s an option for almost every interest you can think of. Below, we profile three clubs you might not expect Booth to have and asked some of the students who run them about their mission and activities.
Booth Aeronautics and Space Club
Co-chairs Ryan Crowley, Kishen Raghunath, Logan Ware, Weekend MBA
Booth Aeronautics and Space Club was founded a couple of years ago. We have 30 members, including full-time Booth students. The mission of the club is to expose people to the aerospace field. We get a lot of interest from people that are either in the industry or are interested in transportation like rail, airline management, or the space sector. Our members are interested in the venture capital funding going into the industry and the new start-ups being founded. We want to expose people to opportunities or jobs within traditional aerospace, startups, as well as the financing venture side.
We try to bring in interesting people to talk to our community to show how you can utilize your MBA to have a career in the space sector. This past year we had a talk with Sunil Nagaraj, managing partner and founder at Ubiquity Ventures. We also met with Laura Forczyk, founder and executive director of the Georgia Space Alliance. We’re working on putting together an annual case competition for aerospace start-ups. Financial services and consulting services aren’t the only career paths you can use a Booth MBA for, this is a really exciting industry.
Studio Booth
VP Marketing, Kate Pincus, Evening MBA
The mission of Studio Booth is to get people engaged in the arts, whether it’s dance, visual arts, literature, or anything arts and culture related. Many of our members have a background in the arts, whether we currently work in the industry or like me, majored in something arts-related in college. Studio Booth provides an outlet to learn about and appreciate the business side of the arts, and ultimately to share our passion for the arts with other Boothies. We currently have 58 members.
Studio Booth events have ranged from attending Moth StoryClubs at BoothSLAMs in Chicago, panel discussions with individuals from the arts community, and participating in an Improv for Business session. Earlier this year in collaboration with the Booth Book Club, we went to the American Writers Museum to see the Bob Dylan exhibit and had cocktails and networking time afterwards. We try to attend a theater, dance, or music performance once per quarter. This year, among other activities, we went on a tour of the Museum of Contemporary Art with artist Jessica Campbell after hours, thanks to a connection through one of our co-chairs. Studio Booth is a wonderfully different forum for people to network and get to know each other outside the classroom!
Booth Outdoors
Past Co-chair, James Meiners, Evening MBA
Booth Outdoors takes students beyond the classroom and gets them outside. We have 223 members who are really looking for ways to get outdoors. The ski trip is our premier annual event. We went to Whistler, British Columbia this year for four days of great skiing and had over 100 students out there. Last year we held a bike and brewery event where we helped people get out of their comfort zone and got them comfortable riding bikes through the city. We also did a hike in Central Illinois near Starved Rock. Our club is a great way to get to know your classmates well, in a space where you’re not focused on career development but just building relationships. We get to enjoy each other’s company in a new and exciting way.
In celebration of AAPI Heritage Month, we wanted to share a quick snapshot of the Booth South Asian Club from the perspective of Part-Time MBA student and current co-chair, Sarthak Gupta.
Connecting with our AAPI Community: Student Spotlight on the Booth South Asian Club
Chicago Booth women from each of our MBA Programs share their hopes for the future of women in business.
Chicago Booth Women Look Forward
Weekend MBA student Austin Teerman talks to us about his career, insightful product management related classes, and extracurricular activities at Booth.
Spotlight on Product Management: Austin Teerman