Monthly Archives: April 2012

Last Tuesday, April 24th, the University presented its annual Swing Out Awards, which honor student organizations that have demonstrated excellence in leadership on campus. Not surprisingly, more than half of the winning student organizations are led by BHP seniors. Congratulations to all of our student leaders for their tremendous work!

Honors Business Association — Best Social Organization (President – Heather Graham)

Undergraduate Business Council — Best Academic/Departmental Organization and Most Improved Organization (President – Michael Daehne)

Indian Cultural Association — Best Cultural Organization (President – Anuj Khandelwal)

Texas Orange Jackets — Best Spirit Organization (President – Erica Brody)

Asian Business Student Association — Best Professional Organization (President – Grace Kim)

Punjabbawockeez — Best Recreational Organization and Most Outstanding Organization (Leaders – Sameer Desai and Arjun Desai)

Delta Kappa Delta – Greek Awards Outstanding President (President – Neelam Mistry)

Congratulations to the Honors Business Association for winning the “Best Social Organization” Award  at the 2012 Swing Out Awards presentation on April 24th. The Swing Out Awards are given by the University of Texas Leadership and Ethics Institute (LEI) to student organizations that have demonstrated excellence in leadership on campus. Winning this campus-wide award is quite an accomplishment. The BHP salutes HBA officers Heather Graham, Shalin Dalal, Melissa Beaver, Forrest Ripley, Jordan Ripley, Justine Taylor-Raymond, Todd Storm, and Chris Nguyen for their truly outstanding work in 2011-2012!

The BHP Spring Town Hall Meeting took place yesterday with more than 80 BHP students and faculty in attendance, each hungry to provide input on the program and to eat the Torchy’s Tacos that were present. The event kicked off with Dr. Prentice delivering a State of the BHP Address that recognized the many recent accomplishments by BHP students and staff. Dr. Prentice also explained how the suggestions from previous town hall meetings were already being implemented, such as moving BA 324 to the first semester of freshman year for BHP students. One of the highlights was the unveiling of a new BHP CIBER program to Buenos Aires that is in the works and will hopefully take place starting in the summer of 2014.

The rest of the meeting allowed students to ask questions, voice concerns, and offer suggestions to improve BHP. Several issues that were discussed included how to better integrate sophomore admits and how to best utilize group work in classes such as Marketing 337H and MIS 301H. Many students also offered their opinions on the best use of BA 101H and how it could be structured to best educate freshmen about the different business majors. The meeting concluded after two hours of discussion that featured many promising new ideas for the future of BHP.

Saturday April 24 reminded me not only why I love being in Austin, but also a Business Honors student at The University of Texas.

This Saturday was the 2nd Annual BHP Golf Tournament, and it could not have been a better day. For April in Texas, it was a mild 75 degrees when my team teed off at 10:40 a.m. The day only got better, and by the end of the tournament, I realized how unique this event really was. 

First, it was a great experience to interact with BHP students from other grades and majors that I don’t get to see on a regular basis. Second, having corporate partners present from Dell and BP made the event much more exciting, because not only were we out having fun with fellow students, we were learning about their respective companies and what it was like to be a young professional- a subject that I find particularly interesting as graduation is only a couple of weeks away. Third, the scramble format of the tournament immediately built camaraderie among the groups, and allowed a mediocre-at-best player like me to have fun. I have to give a shout out to Chris Ruppert, fellow senior and scratch golfer who carried our group to what should have been a tournament victory… 

Whether I was hooking a drive into the woods or watching a rarely-made long putt, I couldn’t help but have a good time on the course surrounded by good people on a great day. The only thing that lasted longer than my smile that day was the sunburn.

— Robert Austin Shires

The BBA Career Services Office hosted a BHP Senior Panel on Wednesday, April 18.  Six BHP Seniors—Michael Daehne, Sameer Desai, Eva Agoulnik, Anuj Khandelwal, Andrew Townsell, and Grace Kim— passed down wisdom to a group of BHP Freshman.  The panel offered up some great tips for how to be successful in an internship. Here are five notable ones.

1) Figure out what your boss hates to do and become good at that.

2) Write down a list of everybody you meet. Record their name, email, personal information (wife’s name, kids’ names, alma mater, etc.), and your conversations with them. Use that information when you network and talk to them. It will really help you to stand out and build your network.

3) Come in early or stay late. When the office is quiet, you will get more uninterrupted work done.

4) Befriend the administrative assistants of executives and schedule lunch with them in advance. Try to meet as many people as you can. It will pay off enormously.

5) Make yourself comfortable with being uncomfortable. In ambiguous situations, ask a lot of questions. Keep engaging with your managers and peers with a positive attitude. Continue to ask questions about how things operate at the company. If you are genuinely interested in how the company is run, managers will notice, and it will reflect positively on you.

Ajun Desai, a senior BHP student organized the event with the BBA Career Services Office. “We put this event on for students because we felt there was a general uncertainty for students who are heading to an internship,” said Desai. “Being an employee is different from being a student, and our hope was to ease the transition into the professional world. Hearing from experienced students in informal, relaxed environment encourages some truly thoughtful advice to be passed along.”

We hope the students who attended and those of you reading this post find this information useful as you take on your next internship this summer!