The Department of Information Systems held a reception Thursday, Aug. 25 to welcome students back to Kennesaw State University.
The reception, held in Prillaman Hall room 2008, was organized by department head Traci Carte and lecturer Andy Green. The event provided pizza and soft drinks along with a chance for students to network and get to know others in the department.
“Our purpose here is multi-fold,” Green explained. “It’s basically just to get everyone jump-started for the academic year, let them know what options are out there, and hopefully stir some engagement.”
This year the instructors in the department started to implement a professional engagement policy, requiring each of their students to attend at least five events that relate to their major. Many of the students came to receive credit for the new policy.
“I think it’s definitely something they’re trying to implement in most of the business courses,” said information systems major Isaac “Tobi” Korede. “There are always plenty of professional engagement seminars, but this was the first on this campus.”
The department also tried to reach out to students with undeclared or undecided majors to encourage them to come to the event and learn more about the IS department.
Green started the event by asking trivia questions, handing out prizes such as T-shirts, water bottles and cell phone chargers. He asked difficult questions like, “Exactly how many internet users are there?” and “How many hours of content are uploaded to YouTube every minute?”
After trivia, Carte and the rest of the faculty presented a quick rundown of what IS and information systems assurance mean and the types of careers related to these majors. They explained how the IS department was created at KSU and provided handouts with detailed instructions on how to succeed in the both majors.
Two student organizations under the IS department also presented at the event: Women In Technology and the Offensive Security Research Club.
Taylor Head, president of WIT, made a point to emphasize that her organization helps both men and women aiming to work in science, technology, engineering or mathematic fields. She hopes her presentation convinced more people to join.
“During our meetings last year,” she said, “we only had about six people regularly attending.”
President Mark Mosley and Vice President Steven Cassamajor of the Offensive Security Research Club gave a brief description of their organization, explained how to join and passed out information about their cyber defense competitions.
“I thought this was really helpful,” information systems major Gregory Steffes said. “I’m definitely going to look more into the clubs that were here tonight.”
Green, one of the organizers, said he was happy with the attendance at the event.
“Everybody got to eat, drink, and hear about the opportunities that are present in the department,” he said. “This may become a yearly thing.”
