Congratulations to Randell Gaskins, our Most Valuable Member of September!
Sitting in Women in Business’ club room, Randell Gaskins reflects on the first time that he stepped foot in the room a few semesters ago. He came in to inquire about how he could receive the organization's newsletter. The president at the time looked perplexed— curious as to why a man would take an interest in the organization that is geared toward empowering women. Nonetheless, Gaskins began receiving the newsletter and this was the beginning of his journey in W.I.B..
“I wanted to expand my horizons a bit and I had heard about Women in Business, but I honestly didn't even know where your club room was, even though I was in N.A.B.A. which is right across the hall,” said the senior accounting major touching on what drove him to join W.I.B..
Gaskins’ curiosity quickly turned into action as he dove into attaining positions in two committees that very semester— Member Development and Treasury.
Treasury was where Gaskins naturally gravitated toward as it is similar to positions he has held in other clubs, but he admits that member development was him stepping outside of his comfort zone.
“Every now and then someone would ask me to help them with their resume,” said Gaskins, “and that was like the only experience I had with development.”
Trying new things is a trend that has followed Gaskins throughout his W.I.B. journey as he currently holds the position of Data Analyst in the Internal Communications committee; W.I.B.’s latest addition, dedicated to bridging the communication gap among the committees in the organization.
“Long-term, even if the committee doesn’t stay as a committee I’m sure that they’ll learn a lot in terms of how they can communicate with each other,” said Gaskins.
Gaskins has taken this responsibility head on. From creating forms to monitoring attendance, even to planning induction, he’s been pretty busy playing a part in starting up the committee.
“I didn’t give him much direction since I was still trying to come up with a system myself,” said Rabia Nayyar, Vice President of Internal Communications, speaking about Gaskins’ role in the committee. “I gave him a simple solution I came up with and he worked with it and now it’s new and improved.”
Gaskins credits his ability to manage all these different roles and responsibilities to always keeping a notebook in hand, but more importantly to prioritization— saying that W.I.B. has become his priority when it comes to student life.
“It’s like when you’re doing your major classes versus your non-major classes, obviously you’re going to try to do well in all of your classes but realistically your major classes are going to come first,” said Gaskins on his philosophy of prioritization.
“Honestly I am not at all surprised that he was nominated and I’m glad that he is,” said Nayyar, as she talked about how Gaskins continually goes above and beyond in his duties. “He deserves it!”
There is no doubt that Gaskins is a valuable asset to Women in Business and his nomination of MVM proves that others see it that way too.