With commencement creeping around the corner, most graduating students are thinking about the next step in their life after college. The Women in Business Club wants to help with that. 

The club held a Zoom meeting on April 26 open to all students centered around mapping the future. The club introduced the company Your Own Trail, a website launched in February 2020, in the Zoom meeting.

The website, which can be reached at owntrail.com, was created with the intent of a women-oriented base. Your Own Trail was created with the intent to help women everywhere plan out their personal and professional futures. 

Crystal Clausen, the president of the Women in Business club who is also the assistant online and social media manager for The Observer, said men are more than welcome to use the website and attend the Zoom session held by the club explaining the site.

“The co-founder Kt, she really wanted to be able to make it a place for that connection and being able to make it so everybody feels like they can share their story and not have to filter out all those wonderful personal achievements,” Clausen said.

The Zoom event was planned after the advisor of the Women in Business Club, Olivia Vester, stumbled upon the site while planning for the Find Your Voice conference held on April 14. 

We came across OwnTrail and their mission was perfectly aligned with what we had in mind for the conference,” Vester said. “The following part [from the OwnTrail website] really resonated with me and others on the planning group; ‘In a world where women are so often made to feel like we’re not enough, embracing our stories is an act of self-love, resistance and helping others. We believe that connection, representation and authenticity are catalysts of personal and systemic change.’”

McBratney spoke at the conference, discussing the topics of blazing your own path and the misconceptions of the “right way.”

The Zoom event also played McBratney’s talk from the conference which the Women in Business Club had recorded. Clausen explained how to create a “trail” and the attendees created their own and shared snippets from their trail or their entire trail to the group. 

“It’s emphasizing telling your story but in a way that you would be able to personally and not professionally, necessarily,” Clausen said. “You’re adding when you got your pets, you’re adding when you’re moving, you’re adding if you have any struggles or achievements.” 

Any students interested in creating a trail can go to owntrail.com. The Women in Business club have also uploaded their own trails on the site, which can be viewed by anyone.

The Women in Business Club meets every week on Mondays at 6 p.m. through Zoom. The meetings alternate between professional development and team building activities.