CLU offers a course for students who want to learn how to plan a successful event.

Professor Angela Fentiman teaches the Event Planning and Management course at California Lutheran University.

Her class provides insight to students who feel it might be helpful for their career path or want to be event planners after graduation.

Fentiman’s course helps students confidently prepare for and enter the field of event planning.

Fentiman changed the course a bit from last semester.

Students now plan class events of their choice, where they come up with their own event and host it during one of the class periods.

Students are also expected to attend an event and then write an audit, explaining what they thought was good about the event and what they thought could have been done better.

Students are also required to complete an industry professional interview, where students find somebody who works in the event planning industry and ask them what it’s like to work in their field.

Their final project is an event trouble shooting scenario, where they are given a dilemma related to an event they created and must solve a given problem on the spot in front of the class.

“I definitely think it helped me in a lot of different ways as far as organization goes, not even just event planning, but also for planning out my day and week. It made me realize it’s possible to be successful and if you go after what you want and just keep pursuing your dream, then you can reach [it],” said junior Domonique Baxter.

Fentiman invites guest speakers to come and talk with her class.

Last semester, Gail Cayetano attended, the creator of Starfish Creative Events and entrepreneur of Shop Talk Los Angeles.

Cayetano has received awards for her work and has also started the Cayetano Legacy Collection with her sisters.

The company helps women in the Philippines learn to make jewelry, which helps them maintain jobs.

“Gail is young and successful and owns a few businesses, so it puts it in perspective,” said Baxter.

In addition to being a learning experience for students, the experience can also be positive for the speaker coming in.

Cayetano said she always enjoys guest lecturing at universities such as Cal Lutheran.

“I remember how much I’ve been influenced by speakers and professors. I hope that something I say during these lectures will spark some further thought or insight into even just one student’s head. It’s great to hear students’ goals and aspirations.

It reminds me of where I’ve come from and reinforces my own career choices,” she said. “Talks like these are just as beneficial for me as I hope it is for the students.”

Contact Fentiman at [email protected] for more information.

Brock Funfar
Staff Writer
Published March 20, 2013