Pleasanton Young Professionals Offer Career Development, Fun for the Under 40 Set

By Jay Hipps, Hacienda Network Staff Writer

No matter the stage of your career, it is nice to have peers that you can turn to for advice and perspective. For those at the beginning of their careers, having a supportive peer group can be especially helpful, simply because there is so much more to learn.

That is part of the thinking behind the creation of Pleasanton Young Professionals, a group associated with the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce that was launched in January, 2014. "We want to learn, we want to grow, and we want to empower each other to do so," says Danielle Fratellone D.C., one of the group's founders. "'Learn, Grow, Empower,' is our three-word tagline. It just kind of summarizes what we're going for."

The group holds one event each month, alternating between social occasions like mixers and workshops designed to enlighten.

"We have professional development meetings where we'll have speakers come and talk on a variety of different topics," Fratellone says. "Because we are trying to get more people to come to our events who don't necessarily have sales jobs or run their own business, we've been trying to broaden our topics. At one point we had 'Top Ten Tips for Buying a Home,' we've had tax and accounting related topics that we wouldn't have known about at this juncture in our lives, we've had a general come and speak on leadership. We had a class on etiquette once."

After two years of workshops and socials, Fratellone says she can see the impact that the group has had on its members. "It's been really cool to see everyone becoming more confident in our communication skills," she says. "With the group of people that we've gotten to meet over the past two years, friendships form and people have been able to get job referrals or transition through the leads that we've made. It's great to watch all of our personal and professional growth."

She says that the group is also looking to be more active in the community. "That's something we've been able to do more in the last six months. We've had people join our board who have more experience with philanthropic endeavors," she says. "We're trying to come up with other ways that we can raise money so that we can be more active with our group, because we realize it takes money to do things. We do have some sponsors that have been very generous to us, so we're just trying to figure out how to get that going a little bit better so we can be more involved in the community and do different things."

The group's next event is a social to be held January 28 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm at Hacienda's Pick 6 Sports Lounge, 4825 Hopyard Road. In February, Pleasanton Young Professionals will join with the Young Professional Network, a real estate group, to benefit Kids Against Hunger, a local non-profit. A professional development event, topic to be announced, is scheduled for February 18 at the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce, 777 Peters Avenue.

For more information on Pleasanton Young Professionals, access the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce web site at www.pleasanton.org, the group's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pleasantonyoungprofessionals, or contact chairperson Kim Damiani at kimdamiani@wealth-mgt.net or (925) 462-6007. Annual dues are $50 for members of the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce and $100 for non-members.

More information about Kids Against Hunger may be found at www.kidsagainsthungerpleasanton.org.

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