About WISHRM

By: Tanya Hubanks, SHRM-SCP
 
It was a snowy Friday, March 1 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, not unlikely many of the prior days in the city’s record-breaking snowfall year, but it did not dampen the spirits of most of the student competitors, attendees, and volunteers as they arrived ready to compete, learn, network, and have some fun at WISHRM’s 2019 HR Games and Student Conference held at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire (UWEC).
 
The 2019 HR Games and Student Conference was one for the books. Twelve teams (34 students) competed in five rounds of jeopardy-style competition, with no bye rounds. Each competition room had five volunteers and, often, a cheering section of other student attendees, local human resources professionals, and club advisors. The 2019 jeopardy boards covered many topics with some tough questions – including questions about SHRM and WISHRM. For this year's HR Games, there were 225 questions in total - that's significant content to know and volunteers were impressed with our students’ knowledge under pressure. Speaking of that, we want to give a special shout out to the students competing, as well as the four top-placing teams, whose student clubs received $400, $300, $200, and $100, respectively. Great job students!

• 1st place: NorberTeam, St. Norbert College – Emily Donegan, Cathryn Siolka, Julia Platteter
• 2nd place: Dream Team, Western Technical College – Laura Koenig, Katie Jore, Nkaonyia Yang
• 3rd place: This Time It’s Personnel, UW-Whitewater – Erin Parr, Roshani Patel, Emily Owen
• 4th place: HR Rockstars, Western Technical College –  Matsky Xiong, Erin Nilsestuen, Mai Thao

Saturday’s conference and final competition rounds were held at the Holiday Inn, where many students and attendees stayed, which meant no driving or finding parking in snow bank filled lots was required on Saturday morning. The food was excellent and the conference speakers, even better. Callie Zipple, SHRM-SCP, North Central Field Services Director, SHRM, Jan Johnson, SHRM-SCP, SPHR, Executive Vice President of Organizational Agility, Royalty Credit Union, and Alonzo Kelly Founder & CEO of Kelly Leadership Group, LLC spoke to an engaged room, sharing their insights on the importance of professional organization involvement, networking, capitalizing on talent, and being one’s best-self.

A special thanks is extended to our host, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and the UWEC Student Club (with extra special kudos to UWEC SHRM student club leaders Shauna Parish and Emilie Froidcoeur), Chippewa Valley SHRM for their active involvement in the event. We also thank the many volunteers, conference speakers, and our event sponsors: WISHRM, Chippewa Valley SHRM (CVSHRM), Weld Riley, Royal Credit Union, Charter Bank, and Manpower. Our state could not provide this no-cost learning experience without hard-working hosts, local sponsors, and engaged volunteers. Much applause to you.
 
The bid to host the 2020 HR Games and Student Conference will be sent to student club advisors soon. Once again, congratulations to our Wisconsin human resources students - keep learning, stay involved, and be true to you. You are the future of our profession.