BATON ROUGE – LSU’s chapter of the National Association of Women MBAs welcomed first and second year MBA women back to school with its annual brunch and a new shopping event hosted by Banana Republic.

Ashley Jones, president of NAWMBA-LSU, said both events were a success. “Our goal in hosting these events was to allow the first year women to come together prior to the start of launch,” Jones said. “We understand how overwhelming MBA launch is; we wanted to give the woman a chance to interact with each other in a setting other than school.”

NAWMBA held the third annual brunch at Another Broken Egg. Lexi DeBrock, first year MBA candidate, described the brunch as an opportunity for the first andsecond year girls to meet each other in a relaxed atmosphere. “We ate great food, got advice about classes and talked about what to wear,” said DeBrock.

In addition to the brunch, Banana Republic in Towne Center and NWAMBA jointly hosted a "Back to School Shopping Happy Hour" specifically for women in the Flores MBA program. Members mingled, enjoyed refreshments, viewed a fashion show, and shopped dress code appropriate clothing at discounted prices.

“Banana Republic is really interested in forming a relationship with the MBA program,” said Jones. “Since the Banana Republic Town Center location sells women’s apparel only, we thought it would be a great opportunity to form a partnership through this event. Collaboration is one of the four focus areas of NAWMBA.”

The National Association of Women MBAs (NAWMBA) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to empowering female business professionals to propel more women into leadership positions in corporate America and to enhance the diversity of the nation's workforce. NAWMBA’s focus is on the development of early to mid-career stage professionals. They serve female MBA students, female business professionals and employers.