Weinberg senior Grace Joo arrived at a kick-off event for a business mentoring program involving Northwestern undergraduates and Kellogg graduate students last year and didn’t know what to expect. Clutching her resume as she waited to meet her mentor, all she could think was, “I’m meeting a Kellogg student and I hope I have my act together,” she said.

A year later and after many coffee dates with her mentor, Joo declared a double major in economics and psychology. She said she now hopes to find a career in marketing research.

The business mentoring program Joo participated in is a part of Northwestern’s Society of Minorities in Pursuit of Law and Business. The Pursuit is the only pre-professional program on campus targeted to minority students with these interests.

Joo said her fears subsided as she talked with her mentor about what kind of woman could succeed in business.

“I think a lot of people were surprised with how warm, fun and relaxed the Kellogg students were and how fun the evening was,” she said.

In addition to law and business mentoring programs, the organization helps students advance through networking, resume and interview workshops, as well as test preparation sessions for the GMAT and LSAT. The Pursuit also draws speakers from a variety of professions.

Although the Pursuit targets minorities, all students, regardless of race, are welcome in the organization, said Jaime Flores, a Weinberg senior and the group’s president.

“The goal of the Pursuit is to open it to any student interested in law and business,” Flores said. “You don’t have to be a minority. There are actually more non-minority students than minority students in the Pursuit.”

With the exception of Asian students, executive members of the Pursuit are finding a lack of minority participation in the organization, they said.

“I personally think that (the level of minority participation is) sad and something the program really struggles with in trying to bring out minorities,” said Vice President Emerald Morrow, a Weinberg junior. “We’ve realized it’s not our fault because it’s not like we’re not doing things that don’t interest the minority group. We know what we’re doing is solid.”

The Pursuit’s executive board is attempting to change the lack of minority participation by sending out information over e-mail lists that target minorities and by finding more black and Latino Kellogg students to participate as mentors.

“My personal feeling with business and law is that within the Asian community there is a larger group encouraged by their parents to pursue law and business,” said Joo, now the group’s executive business liaison. “We want to try and encourage students from other minorities also.”

During Winter Quarter the Pursuit will organizing a business fair, tentatively set for Feb. 6. The fair will feature top ten business schools, including Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“We hope we can get a large base of minorities to come out,” Morrow said. “We’re bringing in big names, but we would like more support for other activities as well. The Pursuit offers a lot of advantages and people need to take advantage of them.”

Reach Emmalee Miller at [email protected].