2021 College of Business Council Awards

The Fowler College of Business Council hosted their annual Business Achievement Awards virtually on Wednesday, April 21, 2021.

Several business student organizations and individuals were honored during the event for their excellent work throughout the year. Congratulations to the awardees and thank you for being great representatives of Fowler!

2021 College of Business Council Award Winners and Descriptions:

Organization of the year:
Women in Business

Women in Business

“Women in Business is a new club that was started in 2019. In our first year of existence, we had approximately 60 active members. We are currently in our second year, and now have over 300 active dues-paid members, a 500% growth in less than a year. Aside from an increase in membership, Women in Business assists in the coordination and funding of the annual Women in Leadership Conference. For the 2020 conference Women in Business provided approximately $30,000, granted from the Student Success Fee, for the event. For the virtual conference this year, our organization provided over $50,000. In addition to this, Women in Business took advantage of having virtual meetings and collaborated with other Women in Business organizations at universities across the country, such as UC Davis, Berkeley, Stanford, and UCSD.”

Most Improved Organization:
American Marketing Association

American Marketing Association

“In Fall 2019, AMA had 56 active members with meeting turnout typically ranging from 15-25 members. In Spring 2020, they had 33 membership applications before COVID-19 put a halt on their semester. Fall 2020 was AMA’s first fully online semester with various challenges while adjusting to the new virtual environment. The fall 2020 member roster included 78 active members, while our Spring 2021 roster includes 123 members. They have seen an 119% increase in our membership numbers despite the switch to a fully online format.”

Outstanding Virtual Event:
Latinos in Business Panel,
Hispanic Business Student Association

Latinos in Business Panel, HBSA

“The purpose of this event was to bring in Latino professionals in various industries, from both San Jose and San Diego, and learn from their experiences/advice. These professionals include a Project Manager at Apple, Hardware Technical Writer at Aruba Networks, CEO at Border X Brewing, Senior IT Project Manager at Qualcomm. This event was very inspirational as our panelists were very insightful and had a lot of advice to give. It also was a reminder that hard work can get you to where you want to be in life along with some motivation.”

CBC Rep of the Year:
Alek Casillas,
Society for Human Resource Management

Alek Casillas, SHRM

"Alek is more than deserving to receive the CBC Representative Award. To start off Alek is extremely active in SHRM and has been the CBC Representative for a year now. What sets Alek a side from others is his PASSION for the CBC Representative position. He exploits an exuberant amount ENTHUSIASM anytime he informs our organization about any events or updates. He often gives motivational speeches in our meetings as well, which has really brightened a lot of student’s days, especially during a pandemic. It is notable that he does so while also maintaining high academic standards as evidenced by his 3.96 cumulative GPA, being a Weber Honors College student, and receiving seven scholarships during his time at SDSU.”

 

Outstanding Organization Member:
Timothy Seitola,
Graduate Business Student Association

Timothy Seitola, GBSA

“Timothy is a graduate student, with a 3.9 GPA, with the graduate business student association. Timothy started off as Vice President for the organization in the fall and did an amazing job helping the president as well as sitting in on school committees such as the Student Success Fee Proposal board. Upon starting the spring semester, we got the sad news that our President could not continue running the organization and Timothy had to step in and take over.He helped bring structure to a very unstructured board, he helped secure a speakers for our event and thereby saved our event, he is single-handedly dealing with recruitment of the new board as we speak, and he is currently doing all of this while maintaining a close to perfect GPA. If this is not outstanding I am not sure what is.”

Best Faculty Involvement:
Dr. Sunaina Chugani,
Business for Social Good

Dr. Sunaina Chugani, BSG

“Sunaina helped to establish Business for Social Good as well as research properly what this organization was founded upon. Sunaina goes above and beyond both as a professor and as an advisor. She provides feedback and ways to improve on all of our events with compassion and kindness, and is always there for our members and exec.”

Outstanding Alumni Involvement:
Andy Esparza,
Society for Human Resource Management

Andy Esparza, SHRM

“Andy Esparza is an outstanding SDSU alum who is generous with both his time and financial resources to help students. He has utilized his SDSU degree (Management ’81) to become a leader in the human resources (HR) field. Andy Esparza epitomizes what it means to be an Aztec for Life. He clearly appreciates the SDSU education he received and continues to return that appreciation in full measure to the great benefit of our students.”

The College of Business Council (CBC) is one of the seven College Councils which acts as a liaison between student organizations and SDSU’s student government (Associated Students). The CBC was designed to help facilitate the role of active clubs on campus and serves to provide funding for participating clubs and their members by working with Associated Students (A.S.).