CWIB Member Feature: Bella Shapiro

Name: Bella Shapiro

Year: Junior

Major: Marketing Management with a dual concentration in Digital Marketing Strategy and Professional Sales

Minor: Strategic Communications

Fun Fact: Writes poetry

Collegiate Women in Business has drawn in lots of new members this year who are all passionate, hard-working and dedicated to developing themselves professionally and personally. Let’s take some time in this article to highlight one of our new member’s stories. Bella Shapiro is a new member of CWIB and has an interesting journey to finding out what she is passionate about.

Bella Shapiro is a Marketing Management major who grew up in Northern Virginia. Bella’s journey to studying at Virginia Tech is an interesting one. In her junior year of high school, she toured Tech, and it became her top choice. She was leaving on a Sunday and saw students leaving Owen’s. “On Sunday, I woke up and wished I could go to class tomorrow here. That’s when it kind of hit me that I see myself here. I should apply here, and it eventually became my number one,” said Bella.

She started as Business Undecided and just took a lot of prerequisites. She talked to her advisor about her options, who referred her to Professor Brian Collins, professor of practice of Sales and Sales Center Director. He told her about all of the organizations in the Pamplin School of Business that are related to digital marketing and professional sales. She then talked to Professor Donna Wertalik, professor of practice and Director of Marketing Strategy & Analytics, who affirmed that she should look into marketing. She took a leap of faith, still not having any idea of what she wanted to do, and picked both marketing concentrations because she had strengths on both the analytical and creative sides of the industry. She added a Strategic Communications minor because she wanted to be able to communicate well, especially in the field of marketing which requires a lot of teamwork.

Bella now has a better understanding of what she wants to do after college. She wants to stick with marketing and is interested in digital and traditional marketing. She thinks that it would be cool to work for an entertainment company like Spotify but has been leaning more towards the health industry. She was sick last year and saw how important it was to have people who advocate for you, and she has since felt inspired to do that through working with a health marketing agency. Bella has worked previously for a small business in Sterling called Golden Health Holistics as a marketing intern after being their client. She was looking into holistic health and nutritional therapy, and they asked her to come on their team over the summer and the following school year because they needed help with their marketing. It was a great experience, and you can see some of her work on her website.

Since becoming a student at Virginia Tech, Bella has sought out a sense of community in the different organizations she has become a part of. Joining CWIB this past semester has allowed her to build connections with other business students and to find a community of like-minded women. She has also enjoyed getting to hear from the various speakers who have come to talk with CWIB’s members. Additionally, Bella values the importance of mentorship and has joined Cru, where she has since become a mentor to younger Virginia Tech students.

Outside of her classes, Bella stays busy writing poetry, cooking, and being creative. She shared that poetry has had not only an impact on her life, but on others’ lives as well. In high school, Bella would share her poems on social media, which prompted students from her school to approach her and share how her work made them feel. In the future, Bella hopes to publish a collection of her poems so that she can continue to share them with others.

When asked if she had any advice for younger Virginia Tech students, Bella shared that she believes finding a community to be a part of is essential as a freshman. For many others like Bella, CWIB has been a source of community for women in business at Virginia Tech. While college can be stressful and overwhelming at times, Bella advises younger students to seek out mentors and to trust that everything will work out the way it is meant to be.

By: Mirula Prasad and Christine Babish