Ladies Night At Cooper’s Hawk

The Astyra Ladies
The women of Astyra love to wine and dine, especially together! 
 
We all met at Cooper’s Hawk last week for an evening to unwind with the same people we work alongside daily. The night began with indulging in a wine tasting before being sat down by the waitress for a savory meal.
 
“This just reiterated that Astyra is like a family and I love that,” Ashley, our newest Astyra lady, said.
 
This was Shaila’s first ladies night also and she said getting to know who she works with outside of the office is a nice feeling.
 
Although we aren’t quite sure when this tradition started, we plan to continue having ladies nights!

Galentine’s Day

Astyra ladies enjoying lunch at TASTE
Astyra ladies love to spend time together and we all know Valentine’s Day is not complete without a quality meal with the girls. Eight of us decided to bond over a new-to-us lunch spot called TASTE.
 
TASTE first opened in Virginia Beach as a wine & cheese shop in 1973. Since then, it has grown to offer a variety of foods and desserts at its nine Virginia locations!
 
At lunch, we munched on various salads, sandwiches and chips while talking about our plans for the future.

Carmen’s Latest Achievement of 2018

Our Recruiting Team Lead, Carmen earned her Toastmasters certificate!
 
Toastmasters is a worldwide non-profit organization that helps individuals to expand upon their public speaking and leadership skills.
 
Carmen completed the first level of her Leadership Development Path to becoming an effective communicator and leader earlier this month. During this process, she gave five speeches on time management and plan development and implementation. She emphasized the importance of public speaking and leading a team in each of her five speeches.
 
Back in April, Carmen won the “Best Speaker” award for one of her previous speeches.
 
Congrats Carmen!

Helping Richmond’s Youth

Future Young Leaders of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority

Carmen partnered with the Upsilon Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., in the organizations eighth annual Induction Ceremony on September 8th to welcome 11 sixth graders into the Future Young Leaders program.

Through this program, young girls will develop upon their skills and talents to help them become contributing citizens in their community.

Carmen looks forward to seeing how the girls grow and benefit from this program!

August 2018 Is The Month Of Giving!

Carmen posing with eggs
Vivia, Melissa, Carmen, Tianna, Ken and Taylor
Jody, Melissa, Tianna, Brenna and Carmen
Carmen at the YMCA Bright Beginnings Program
Cutting bagels, organizing donations and greeting everybody with a smile was the job of six Astyra employees on an early Tuesday morning.
 
At Shepherd’s Way Relief CenterAstyra helped prepare and serve breakfast to 133 people in need.  Sigmund Collins founded the center in 2012 to provide relief from the afflictions of poverty in the Richmond area.
 
That morning, the kitchen manager Richard Lepper, showed up at 6:30 to make seven pounds of grits and about 25 dozen eggs. At 8:30 a.m., Astyra volunteers arrived not knowing what to expect but excited to work and help out in the community.
 
On one side of the kitchen, Carmen handed out hard-boiled eggs while Tianna passed out a variety of bagels. Our CEO, Ken, got an intense arm workout from scooping the crowd’s favorite: cheesy grits drenched in butter.
 
Just past the serving table, Melissa sweetened everybody’s day by giving them sugar packets for their coffee. Vivia helped flavor the bagels by providing jelly, cream cheese and butter. Lastly, Taylor was in charge of ensuring everybody had the utensils they needed to enjoy their hot meal.
 
Astyra also had an office drive the month before that led to three large bags of clothes, jewelry, shoes and a box full of canned foods and toiletries being donated to Shepherd’s Way Relief Center.
 
Later in the month, six Astyra employees participated in another staff volunteering day at Bon Secours’ Evelyn D. Reinhart Guest House.
 
The Reinhart House is a place for patients’ families to stay as opposed to driving far distances to and from the hospital. As a way to support the families, the lodge allows volunteers to come and cook a meal for the residents.
 
Astyra has been a long-time volunteer for the Reinhart House, which made it easy to prepare for the day. The Astyra volunteers made vegetable breakfast casserole muffins, home fries, bacon and biscuits.
 
Melissa multi-tasked between supervising and frying the home fries. Carmen and Jody focused on cutting the onions and tomatoes while Tianna whisked the eggs. Brenna was on bacon duty ensuring they were just the right amount of crispy. Our CEO, Ken, baked the biscuits to a golden brown.
 
The breakfast turned out to be a hit!
 

“The breakfast flew out of here – loved by everyone,” said Elisabeth Rigsby, house assistant.

Carmen was a superstar this month!

In addition to attending our volunteering days, she also volunteered with the YMCA’s Bright Beginnings program to take a child back-to-school shopping just like Victor did earlier this month!

“As a 1st time participant in the YMCA Bright Beginnings program, being able to help kids feel good about themselves in school and beyond was rewarding. It reminded me of how incredibly blessed I am, and that encourages me to want to give back even more,” Carmen said.

She plans on helping out with this program again next summer!

Carmen’s Winner’s Circle

Congratulations to our Recruiting Team Lead, Carmen Zimmitt, who won the “Best Speaker” award from Richmond Toastmasters.

Toastmasters International is an organization that strives to help professionals develop their speaking and leadership skills. Members go through a variety of skill-building sessions involving creating and giving speeches.

Well done Carmen!

Longest Day Campaign

Carmen Zimmitt (top left) with Esteemed Ladies of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.: Laverne C., Angela D, Florence N. and Grace T.
Recruiting Team Lead, Carmen Zimmitt volunteered with her Sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, who partnered with the Alzheimer’s Association of Greater Richmond in it’s observance of the Longest Day campaign for fundraising and awareness at the Science Museum of Virginia.
 
Click here to learn more, or to register for an event. 

Right On Cue Tournament 2017

Astyra's teams

Astyra formed 3 teams to participate in the annual “Right on Cue” tournament, hosted by ChamberRVA in March.

Astyra was the proud sponsor of the trophy.

Pictured above, Sam Young stands with the winners of the pool tournament, ChamberRVA's CEO, Kim Scheeler and the current Chair Ned Masse.

Women Who Mean Business 2016

Melissa, Brittany, Carmen and Brenna at the event
Women from large and small organizations had the opportunity to network for a day, at the 6th Annual Women Who Mean Business Summit, hosted by the Metropolitan Business League on September 30, 2016. 
 
It was an inspiring and interesting day for the Astyra ladies!
Brittany Brown said: “This year’s summit was another successful MBL event! It is always good to see women coming together, whether it is to network or celebrate each other’s accomplishments. This event allows us to do both, and I love that!”
Click here to learn more about the MBL. 

Congrats 2015 Grad!

Congratulations Carmen!
We are thrilled to announce that our Senior Recruiter, Carmen Zimmitt graduated Summa Cum Laude (4.0) with a Master in Business Administration from Averett University in December.
 
She was recognized for her honors and also as the Student Leader for her Cluster. Carmen says the best part about receiving her MBA was being inducted into the Sigma Beta Delta Honor Society. 
 
She said, “It is invigorating to know that I’m a part of an organization and network filled with like-minded individuals and successful business people.”
 
As Carmen has settled into her role at Astyra, she plans to utilize the skills learned at Averett to continue to advance in her career.  

Meet Our Newest Employee Of 2015!

Carmen Zimmitt joined Astyra as a Senior Recruiter. 
 
She is a native of Woodstown, NJ and currently resides in Hanover County, VA. 
 
Carmen graduated from Rutgers University with a Bachelor of Science in Management & Ecommerce Technology. She is now attending Averett University and will be completing her Master’s degree this July.
 
She previously worked at BranCore Technologies as a Senior Recruiter and is excited about her new role with Astyra Corporation. 
 
In her spare time, Carmen enjoys spending time with her family, friends and her fiancé! She also likes shopping, bowling, singing, exercising.