CBT Women’s History Month Panel

By Nicole Aponte

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – This past week, the orange community celebrated the 151st birthday of the University. This is usually a week that alumni and students celebrate their orange roots together on campus, but FOSAC had to adapt due to COVID-19 protocols.

Students had the opportunity to participate in a handful of in-person events, including the winter carnival on Wednesday, March 24. Most students found it best to tune into the alumni panels that the university was able to host: one of them being the Women’s History Month Panel. Dibya Patnaick, FOSAC president, wants students to know that alumni are always willing to lend a helping hand. “Students don’t realize how willing alumni are to come back and talk to us and give us advice. They are so excited to see what students are doing now.”

The Women’s History Month Panel took place on Thursday, March 25. The Panel included Gisele Marcus, chief operations officer at NPWR; Maria Melendez, chief diversity officer at Sidley Law; Constance Orlando, executive vice president and head of programming at Black Entertainment Television (BET), and Jacqueline Welch, executive vice president and chief of human resources officer at The New York Times. The conversation was moderated by Candace Campbell Jackson, senior vice president and chief of staff at Syracuse University.

The women offered up real life advice based on their experiences as high-ranking individuals within the companies that they work at. The main takeaway from the conversation was to “Be Epic.” Being epic means working hard, because nothing outdoes hard work.

After the conversation had ended, CitrusTV had the chance to speak to Gisele Marcus, ‘89, who explained that ‘being orange’ means supporting orange always. “It doesn’t even matter how long the time is between someone graduating from Syracuse and myself, there is just always a bond there. And it just feels really good to be orange!”

These women discussed the importance of networking, the importance of sponsors and advocates, and how everyone must establish a work-life balance. Their conversation goes to show that once you graduate from Syracuse University, you are always a member of the SU community.