The Kent State Business Leadership Club, which officially began this semester, offers learning and networking opportunities to business students. 

The mission of this club is to “promote a leadership focused culture here at Kent State,” said Zachary Eckert, junior accounting major. 

Club founders Eckert and Michael Frindt, a junior business management major, began planning for the club and writing its constitution in October 2014. The Center for Student Involvement and the College of Business Administration approved the new club earlier this year, and the first meeting was Feb. 11. 

The club accepts members with any business major or minor, as well as students majoring in public relations. Students must have completed 15 credit hours to join.

The club has found its niche in the College of Business Administration by branding itself as a general business club rather than catering to a specific area in the field.

“We wanted to not only inform other people but to learn stuff ourselves,” Frindt said. “We’re students too, we don’t know everything.” 

Eckert and Frindt pride themselves on creating a club with a laid-back, easygoing environment for students to learn about business. 

Frindt said he tells students to “come in with an open mind, and looking to have some fun.” 

Meetings cover different topics each week, designed to help students looking to go into the business industry improve and prepare themselves for their careers.

“We want to concentrate on leadership topics, such as body language, unconscious bias, different things like that,” Eckert said. “We also want to work on promoting yourself. Working on your resumes, what you need to do.”

They plan to address leadership topics to help prepare business students for a broad range of business-related topics from creating a resume to preparing for an interview. 

“We want all of our associates to be ready for that,” Frindt said.

One of the biggest tenets of the club is its commitment to volunteering. Eckert and Frindt hope to hold two volunteer opportunities each month for members. 

“Leadership starts with giving back to those in need in the community,” Eckert said.

Currently there are 20 members in the club, including five officers. There are no fees to join the club, and meetings take place every other Wednesday. 

The club can be contacted at their official email, [email protected].  The club also has an official Twitter account, @KSUBLC, as well as pages on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Contact Ellie Enselein at [email protected].