Shopping for careers with Brandi Joplin: What made her buy into Sam’s?

Article written by Zoya Saxena

What really goes on in the Club? Brandi Joplin, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Sam’s Club, visited the Canfield BHP class of 2022 during Business Lyceum to answer this burning question and share some experiences from her career path and time at Walmart. 

Joplin started out as an industrial engineering major at the University of Arkansas, but eventually made the switch to Accounting and completed her CPA. While in college, Joplin was extremely involved on campus, which remains a large reason why she feels compelled to return and talk to students. 

“I have a passion for connecting back to something that was such an instrumental part of my education,” Joplin said. 

Joplin remains a believer in keeping in touch with “the younger generation of leaders.” She said she stays involved because she sees students as the budding professionals which will one day be the driving force of companies today. Continue reading

Veronica Stidvent brings a law and policy perspective to Lyceum

For students who strive to enter education, public policy, or non-profit spaces to make a positive impact, Veronica (Ronnye) Stidvent, former Chancellor of Western Governors University (WGU) and current President of Stidvent Partners, proves that it’s possible. 

After graduating from UT Austin and earning a law degree from Yale, Stidvent served at the White House under George W. Bush for five years. She then returned to UT as the Director for Politics and Governance for the LBJ School of Public Affairs where she spearheaded the development of the department of Business, Government, and Society and founded a Hispanic leadership initiative within McCombs, Subiendo. After her time at UT, Stidvent served as Chancellor of WGU Texas and now works as President of Stidvent Partners. 

Amidst all her work, Stidvent still finds time to come speak to Canfield Business Honors students in their Business Lyceum class on an annual basis. During her visit, Stidvent outlined her career path and answered questions from Canfield Business Honors students. She said her career played out quite differently than she imagined. While she had always seen herself practicing law, opportunities came her way and she took advantage of them. Continue reading

Student Spotlight: Rahul Das

Name: Rahul Das

Major: Canfield BHP, Plan II Honors, Marketing 

Previous internship: Southwest Airlines

Topics of Interest: Social entrepreneurship, adoption studies, design thinking, soccer, IM volleyball, sharks

For students who want to pursue non-profit work while in college, Rahul Das proves it’s possible. As someone passionate about education and entrepreneurship, Rahul spends the majority of his time working as Chief Operating Officer of a student-led non-profit, The Exponentialists. 

The mission of The Exponentialists is to empower students in underserved communities through entrepreneurship. Rahul and the rest of the team spend their time mentoring students at  Eastside High School to help them start their own small businesses. 

“We teach them about important business and entrepreneurial concepts. By the end of the year, (the students) have fully developed business ideas,” Rahul said. “Then they have the opportunity to pitch (their idea) to a panel of Austin entrepreneurs and investors to win seed funding for their idea or an invitation into our incubator program.” 

In addition to working in the Austin community, Rahul has gone abroad to fulfill The Exponentialists’ mission. This past summer he went to Medellin, Colombia to run an entrepreneurship camp called Los Exponencialistas.  Continue reading