Deanna Eng is helping to set the stage for future School of Business students. Her involvement with – and creation of – student groups and her work with the Business Student Conference are building opportunities for those who come to MacEwan after her.

Now a fifth-year Marketing major, Eng founded the MacEwan University Finance Club in 2022 to provide an option for students to find their peers. “We really want to bring students together to talk about where you can go within the finance industry, and what a finance degree will help you with in your career,” says Eng.

In addition to being president of the Finance Club, she’s also president of the MacEwan Entrepreneurs Organization and vice-president of the MacEwan University Marketing Club (MUMC). Through those student groups, she’s had many opportunities to engage in one of her passions: event planning.

She organized a case competition for MUMC members and MacEwan students to compete against students from Concordia and NAIT. In the Entrepreneurs Organization, she sets up workshops with MacEwan’s Entrepreneur in Residence and encourages interdisciplinary collaboration between club members, who are from all schools and faculties.

Earlier this month, she helped plan the Business Student Conference, which was held in the Edmonton Convention Centre on October 13. Eng recruited, organized and trained volunteers to assist with the setup and execution of the event.

“I think it's a really good opportunity for business students to come together and meet their peers,” she says. And not just in their own stream, she points out. There’s a lot of value in accounting students, for example, connecting with marketing students. “Who knows where they'll lead you 10 years down the line when you're in your professional career? The connections you make in university hold a lot of weight.”

The full-day conference featured panels, breakout sessions and a keynote speech by “Skid Row CEO” Joe Roberts. Student attendees also networked with local businesses, MacEwan student groups, co-operative education program representatives and other students. Eng says she was pleased with the attendance and the engagement at the event.

“I want to do event coordination, and this experience reinforced that,” she says.

Throughout her time at MacEwan, Eng has been a part of the co-operative education program, working remotely for a Montreal company during the pandemic as well as locally with two Edmonton organizations. The work, she says, has jump-started her career.

“All my roles have focused on marketing, but my last role included event planning as well,” she explains. “That opened up the doors to go down a different pathway with my education. I think a lot of the concepts you learn in marketing are applicable to everything. It's a degree that can pretty much take you anywhere.”