The GCN Chronicle

Every Thursday and throughout Welcome Week, our table became more than a place to promote upcoming events. It was often the first conversation a student had with GCN. Instead of asking people to simply scan a QR code and move on, we took the time to learn what they were studying, what they hoped to do after graduation, and what they were looking for on campus. Those conversations helped us recommend events that actually matched their interests, whether they were searching for internships, leadership opportunities, or simply a community to belong to.

Our partners made it possible to leave every interaction with something tangible: drinks from sponsors like OLIPOP & Synergy, stickers, and other giveaways. But those were never the main takeaway. They were a small reminder of a conversation that started at our table. Many of the students who later became volunteers, officers, and familiar faces at our events first stopped by for a free drink and stayed because they found people who genuinely cared about helping them navigate college.

GlobeTalk wasn't designed to be another speaker event where students sat quietly and left with a notebook full of quotes. We wanted students to hear honest stories about internships, career decisions, and the uncertainty that comes with starting out. The conversations felt approachable because they reflected the questions many students were already asking themselves at the beginning of the semester.

The panel was only part of the experience. The conversations that continued afterward often mattered just as much. Students stayed behind to introduce themselves, ask questions they weren't comfortable asking publicly, and meet peers who were navigating similar career journeys. Those moments reinforced what GCN aims to create: an environment where learning continues long after the presentation ends.

Full-day flagship workshop co-hosted with AWS, ISSC, and PMC. Met AWS recruiters in the morning, hands-on with AWS tools mid-day, mentor-led real-world projects in the afternoon. GCN's first full-day event of the year.

Delivered our highest engagement-per-hour of any Fall event. Opened the recurring AWS relationship that carried into GlobeConnect 2026.

Leadership can feel intimidating until you hear someone else's story. Connect Forward brought together student leaders from across ASU who spoke honestly about the challenges, failures, and lessons that came with building organizations and leading teams. By hearing from students only a few years ahead of them, attendees could picture themselves taking on those same opportunities.

The networking session afterward reflected the culture we try to build at every GCN event. Conversations happened naturally over food and boba, with students introducing one another instead of standing in isolated groups. Whether someone left with a new mentor, a future collaborator, or simply a new friend, they walked away with connections that extended beyond a single afternoon.

Case competition where interdisciplinary teams tackled real business challenges from partner companies. Weekend-long format with faculty and industry mentors, presenting final decks to judging panels.

Cemented GCN as a case-competition player on campus. Established the operational playbook used 5 months later for GlobeHack. 4 internships given out.

Structured networking session in partnership with ASU's Global Career Initiatives. Focused on building the on-campus network most students never intentionally develop.

Second in a series of four GCI collab events, up from 1 the previous year.

First installment of our Careers in Conversation Series: a management-level industry panel featuring Amazon professionals. Speakers: Jugal Bhatt (SWE / AI content creator, 165k+ Instagram followers) and Billy Pierre (Business Continuity & Crisis Management Analyst).

~50 registrants. Jugal Bhatt's social presence brought incremental Instagram followers we hadn't seen from other speakers.

Our first purely social event. A Valentine's-week anonymous matching mixer. Students were anonymously paired ahead of time, revealed their partner on-site, and worked through icebreaker prompts over lattes. 25% menu discount for attendees. Tagline: "You don't know who you're sitting with… yet."

Sold out. One of our highest-attendance Spring events. Broke the "GCN is only for career grinding" perception and built the Honey 2 A Bee café partnership.

Our flagship career fair, co-hosted with GCI. Format: employer panel first, then student-employer interaction. Company partners: Microsoft, Amazon, AWS, TSMC, DoorDash, American Express, IBM.

160+ registrants made this our largest career event by attendance. Direct pipeline into the 10 internship offers announced at GlobeHack two months later.

Our first debate-format panel. Panelists argued opposing positions on startup vs. corporate careers. Co-hosted with ACEL (Asian Corporate and Entrepreneur Leaders).

Distinguished GCN from every other career-panel org on campus. Nobody else was doing debate format. Set up the ACEL partnership for future collabs.

Second Careers in Conversation panel. Speakers: Dan Rodriguez (VP & GM, Edge Computing Group, Intel), Praveen Mosur (Intel Fellow, Product Architecture), Jenna Lapaglia (VP & CFO Operations, Finance Front-End Group). Highest-profile speaker lineup of the year.

~70 registrants, the highest Careers in Conversation attendance to date.

Our biggest event of the year: Arizona's first Go-To-Market Strategy Hackathon, co-hosted with ACM. Not a software-build hackathon. Teams built go-to-market strategies for real products from real sponsors. 8 sponsoring companies. 4 main tracks + 4 side tracks. $11K in cash prizes. $4K in sponsor support. Track Sponsors: Moatable, Ink'd, Hydrawav3. Full sponsors: Red Bull, Lofty, Vector, Syncron, TruckerPath, Moatable, InsForge, 11ElevenLabs, HYDRAWAV3, ASU ISSC, FutureSelf, OLIPOP.

280 hackers, the largest single-event attendance in GCN history. 10 on-site internship offers. 8 sponsoring companies. Established the differentiated GlobeHack brand (GTM, not code) that anchors our sponsor pitch going forward.