Young businessmen and women from across the country gathered on Trinity’s campus last Saturday to learn from experts in the business community. The Pi Omega chapter of Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity hosted the Gulf Western Regional Conference right here on our campus with various speakers presenting on business-related topics. The conference was open to all Trinity students and community members.

“All of the speakers had such great insight to share and in return, the audience was attentive, engaged and curious. I strongly believe that the conference was worthwhile and rewarding to not only the attendees, but also to the speakers and recruiters who were present,” said Joon Kim, senior finance major.

Trinity students in Delta Sigma Pi had been planning the conference since October. Paulina Pastrana, senior business analytics and technology major, is the event coordinator of the business fraternity and was responsible for organizing the event in its entirety.

“We jumped on the opportunity just because the chapter here at Trinity is the newest one, so we haven’t been able to be as involved as we wanted to. We wanted to share it with our fraternity, but we realized that the connections we’ve made as Trinity students are valuable, so we wanted to get the whole campus involved as well,” Pastrana said.

Delta Sigma Pi members were expecting over 100 attendees at the event, varying from brothers of the fraternity, to any Trinity students interested in business, to the general San Antonio community.

“We’re having a series of guest speakers from anything from Argo Group, an insurance underwriter here in town, Morgan Stanley, Enterprise Rent-A-Car. It’s very business-themed, but it’s open to all majors, because there are different things you can do like networking, or maybe communicating, and it just helps put your feelers out there into different industries,” said Julian Biles, junior finance and German studies double major and president of Delta Sigma Pi.

Members of the business fraternity found the speakers to be very enlightening and remarked on what information they will take with them from now on.

“We know Mark Rose now as a very successful CIO of Argo Investments, but to learn the road he took to get there and the many hardships he faced were remarkable. He used his personal experiences to show how you can also be a leader of their own life,” said Christian Citta, junior business and German studies double major.

One emphasis of the conference was to show students skills they can use in the future.

“A few important things I left the conference with are one, not to be afraid to leave your comfort zone, two, staying globally informed can only help you, your investment strategy and your career and three, nothing beats face to face communication,” said Diana Riddle, junior mathematical finance major.

Students say they value the chance to learn outside of the classroom.

“Sometimes you just need to learn from somebody who’s been there, because you can only learn so much from your teachers. In this way, whether you’re a student organization leader or whether you are head of a sorority, I think that you can always learn applicable skills that help you develop further, so hopefully that’s what this conference does for people,” Pastrana said.