Author Archives: cantus

Student Spotlight: Eileen Bau

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Written by Stephanie Cantu

Eileen Bau

Majors: Business Honors, Plan II Honors, Marketing

Company: BHW Group, Austin, TX

Topics: Online Publications, Creative Work, Music/Entertainment

Junior Eileen Bau is currently enrolled in rigorous academic courses for her joint degrees in Business Honors and Marketing as well as the Plan II Honors Program, but that doesn’t mean she can’t be creative too. “I’m currently working on a piece called ‘Why the Shrek Soundtrack Slaps.’ It’s an analysis of a couple of songs from the Shrek 1 and 2 soundtracks and why they went over so well with audiences.” This piece was eventually published in UT’s online music publication, Afterglow, where Eileen serves as a writer. She is also the design director for Apricity Magazine, which is an annual multimedia global arts magazine that competes at the collegiate level.

Eileen applied to these two publications because she didn’t feel like she was doing creative work that could go into her portfolio. She shares, “I never knew what I wanted to do growing up or coming into college, but I now know that I want to work in pop culture, media, entertainment, music, fashion. I realized that having experiences that were more creative and that could produce work for my portfolio was more conducive to interviewing and applying to more creative brands. I wanted to show that throughout college I had solid business experience for my first two years, but that I was also able to pursue passion projects.”

In the fall, Eileen continued an internship she started over the summer with BHW Group, a custom web and mobile app development company. Her job duties included building links between the company’s website and other websites in order to boost the page’s rank on Google. She served as the main point of contact between BHW and other websites and was also responsible for figuring out what kind of content to create. “I learned through this internship that while I can do SEO stuff, I really want to work in brand strategy. I really liked the content strategy part of my role, which was thinking about which content we should put out and what is relevant right now.” She credits the rigor of Canfield BHP and Plan II classes as the most valuable preparation for her internship. “Regardless of what you learn in class, you’re never going to be able to learn everything that you have to know for a certain role because roles are very specific and companies are very specific about what they want done. So, it’s more about how fast you can learn on the job and how well you can adapt. I think having to adapt quickly to my harder classes has helped with that kind of training.”

Despite the challenges of being in two honors programs, Eileen finds reward in the diversity of things she gets to learn. “Having a balance is really important because otherwise it’s really easy to get pigeonholed into just one thing. I think [being a joint major] also gives you a competitive edge because you have a very diverse viewpoint, and a very diverse way of looking at things and problem-solving.” Eileen also encourages current students to pursue what they are passionate about, which can aid in developing these diverse perspectives. “In college when you’re shorter on time, if you get roped into things that you are ultimately not passionate about, it will show up in your work; it’s not a silly thing to pursue what you like,” she advises.

Faculty Spotlight: Shefali Patil, Organizational Behavior

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Written by Nicholas Kuehl

photo credit: Lauren Gerson

Dr. Shefali Patil teaches MAN 336H, the Organizational Behavior: Honors course. A graduate of the Stern School of Business at NYU as well as the Ph.D. in Management program at Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Patil first discovered her passion for research after entering Stern’s business honors program that encouraged students to consider research. Dr. Patil quickly found that she enjoyed the freedom that research offered her as she walked the streets of New York, thinking of new questions and ways to collect data to answer those questions.

Dr. Patil’s course is often described by students as “a lot of fun,” “eye-opening,” and “unexpected” as organizational behavior can often be misconstrued as “boring” and “intuitive.” Dr. Patil emphasizes during each class how organizational behavior is actually quite multi-faceted in that decisions and characteristics that are often considered to be positive can be negative in certain situations. Because her research focuses on organizational behavior in public policy organizations, Dr. Patil’s students are also able to appreciate how organizational behavior concepts can impact everyone’s lives through the actions of police officers, politicians, firefighters, and other public officials. By filling every class with interesting exercises and activities, Dr. Patil encourages students to always look at the flip-side of every decision, which helps students develop the cognitive ability to break through typical patterns of behavior and become independent thinkers. As Dr. Patil has experienced since her childhood, being an independent thinker allows you to surprise others by challenging their expectations and by thinking of unexpected solutions to all sorts of problems, including those in the business, public policy, and personal realms.

As for her Canfield BHP students, Dr. Patil appreciates their intellectual horsepower, their enjoyment of rigorous thinking, and their penchant for abstraction. In fact, Dr. Patil has noticed over the years that her CBHP students often, when exposed to new knowledge, discover where the holes in current knowledge are and form, without being prompted, interesting hypotheses. As a result, Dr. Patil has heard many potential research questions hiding in the questions her CBHP students ask her.

Dr. Patil has this advice to offer current CBHP students: “Remember to do activities and learn new skills outside of your chosen field. Of course, rising to the top in your field is going to take immense effort, dedication, discipline, and resilience. It is a grind, no doubt. But, you also never know what new ideas you may come up with based on your experiences outside of your field—or the people you might meet who will put you on a path you never envisioned.” She believes that when coupled with independent thinking and abstraction, these new ideas and insights can lead CBHP students to have an immense impact in their careers and on the wider world. As a personal example, Dr. Patil recalls how her tennis doubles partner (a software engineer) and her tennis coach helped her identify the connections between the challenges athletes face and the challenges faced by the police officers she was studying. Her partner and coach’s unique experiences were able to  get out of a research slump and recognize new patterns and solutions that are faced by all sorts of decision makers.

Outside of class, Dr. Patil greatly enjoys playing video games with her younger brother. In addition, as mentioned above, Dr. Patil enjoys every aspect of playing tennis with her doubles partner and tennis coach, both of whom she finds endlessly inspiring and motivating.

Faculty Spotlight: Elizabeth Goins – Business Communications

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Written by Nandita Daga

Dr. Elizabeth Goins is currently teaching BA324H, the foundational Canfield BHP Business communication course. Although new to CBHP, she finds teaching CBHP students a rewarding experience because “[they] truly engage with the learning process and bring so much interesting experience to the classroom. I love hearing about their big ideas and big dreams, and that I get the opportunity to help turn those into realities.”

Dr. Goins’ dreams are what led her here to us in Austin. Ten years ago, she was on K Street (Washington D.C.’s lobbying industry) and working with C-suite executives. Her lingering wish of getting a doctorate led her to apply to UT, which has one of the best communication programs nationally. She started graduate school thinking she’d leave as a researcher, but her grad school “side hustles” – as an athletic tutor, assistant director of the University Writing Center, instructor of writing and public speaking, and MBA coach – helped her discover a new calling. Although she has built a successful consulting business post-graduation, her closest passion is still teaching.

Her teaching philosophy is based on pragmatism, which believes that education should be practically applicable to life. She provides examples of how class material will help students be more successful at work, have better relationships, and set themselves apart from the competition. These examples come from her professional experiences, current issues facing companies from different industries, and the latest in business communication research. Dr. Goins believes that BA324H is an essential course because you can be the smartest person in the room, but if you don’t know how to communicate your ideas and persuade people, you’ll never be a successful leader. The BA324H course is particularly empowering, because becoming a skilled communicator is all about practicing and getting feedback – just like playing piano or soccer. Her goal is that wherever a student begins, they will feel more confident about their communication skills after taking her class.

To students, she offers some words of wisdom: “You face so much pressure when it comes to grades, and as someone with an anxiety disorder, I often worry about what that constant stress does to you. But here’s a secret: after your first job or application to graduate school, no one will care about your GPA. ​I had a 3.2 in undergrad and it’s never held me back from anything…What you’ll really remember from this time are the classes that changed your thinking, the experiences that shaped your identity, and the people who became your family. Focus on becoming the best version of yourself while you’re here, and the rest will take care of itself”.

When not in class, you can find Dr. Goins doing yoga, circuit training, spinning, and hiking with her husband. She also enjoys gardening, traveling, and camping (right now she’s into road trips and National Parks). On the less active side, Dr. Goins loves a good Netflix or Amazon binge and is re-watching The Good Wife and The Good Place and about to finish the latest season of The Man in the High Castle. If you would like to learn more about her, email her at elizabethgoins@utexas.edu or drop by her office at GSB 4.126H! ​

Student Profile: Oby Umelloh

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Oby Umelloh

Majors: Business Honors, Management Information Systems, minor in African & African Diaspora Studies

Position: Business Development Intern

Company: Microsoft

Topics: Technology, Coding, Service

Oby Umelloh is currently a fourth-year student who spent this past summer as a Business Development Intern in Microsoft’s Seattle office. “My specific role was to look at what areas a product might go into in the next few years and determine what companies we should partner with versus acquire to help us fill various functionality gaps and enter new regions in the next fiscal year,” says Umelloh. Because of her internship, Umelloh will be returning to Microsoft in August to start a full-time position where she will rotate through Microsoft’s different business sectors for one year. “I really like the culture and vibe at Microsoft. They really believe in growth mindset. Over the summer, even when I felt like I failed miserably at something, they encouraged me to try again and learn from my mistakes. I see this as a great place to start, learn, and grow as much as possible.”

Umelloh found her internship by attending a Microsoft dinner co-hosted by McCombs’s affinity groups. “There were about 60 people there and only 2 Microsoft recruiters, so I didn’t end up talking to one of them until the very end of the event. I was worried he was going to be tired and fatigued, but we just hit it off and had a great conversation about non-recruiting stuff like family and what my interests were.” Without a doubt, Umelloh had plenty of interests, activities, and experiences to share with the recruiter: She’s studied abroad in both South Africa and Hong Kong, interned for a nonprofit in South Africa, taught at a technology summer camp, and is involved in Code Orange, a campus organization dedicated to increasing technical literacy in underserved Austin communities.

“The campus activity I’m most passionate about is Code Orange because I’m very passionate about technical and digital literacy for underrepresented communities. Through Code Orange, I met a friend who was doing a program called iD Tech Camp in Houston. I was looking for programs that would help me teach children that might not have the opportunity to learn coding skills in their schools or have strong STEM programs, and iD Tech Camp was the perfect opportunity for me.”

Her desire to “pay it forward” through programs like Code Orange and iD Tech is influenced by mentors who helped her pave her own pathway into technology. “I was not a coding person at all in high school. When I took MIS 301, I remember reading this passage in the textbook about internet connectivity in underdeveloped countries, and it really resonated with me because my family is Nigerian. It made me want to become an MIS major so I could contribute to this issue of making internet more accessible. Then I took MIS 304 with Caryn Conley (who is a BHP alum) and she made me believe in myself and my ability to code. She and my MIS 333K professor (Katie Gray, also a CBHP alum!) empowered me and gave me the confidence to pursue coding and other technical fields.”

Umelloh also credits her Canfield BHP classes with preparing her to enter the workforce. “There’s something in every class that can be related back to the job. In Statistics (STA 371H) with James Scott, I was really forced to have a data-driven approach to analyses and get over any preconceived notions I had about what the outcome would be. And in (Robert) Prentice’s Business Law (LEB 323H) class, I’m learning about all the ethical considerations of decision-making, which is especially relevant in tech because there’s so much grey area.” Reflecting upon her experiences in the program, she shares the following advice for current and prospective students: “If I could talk to my former self, I would tell myself not to worry so much about the physical manifestations of intelligence, like your grades or how you compare to the statistics of the class as a whole. I would tell myself to instead focus more on what I’m learning and how I can get the most out of each class. Eventually, college will be over and all you’ll be left with is what you learned, not the grade you received.”

BA 151 Lyceum Students Receive Priceless Advice from Alum

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Written by Victoria Bennett

In a recent BA 151H Honors Lyceum class, the sophomores were visited by Mandy Price, Co-Founder and CEO at Kanarys, Inc. An alumnae of both the Canfield Business Honors Program and Harvard Law School, Price shared how her background working in financial services and practicing law led to her current passions and career path. Throughout the question-and-answer based discussion, Price not only shared her own unique story, but gave students insights into how to navigate their own interests during their time in CBHP and after graduation.

During her time on the Forty Acres, Ms. Price studied Finance in addition to the Business Honors curriculum. She was involved in multiple organizations on campus, and spent her summers interning in financial services. These experiences gave her practical experience in her field of study and also allowed her to consider whether or not she saw herself in these roles after graduation.

Immediately following her graduation in 2003, Price continued her education at Harvard Law School. From the content to the teaching style, she described how law school provided a very different learning experience from her undergraduate education and how this helped her grow and develop. One thing her undergraduate and graduate education had in common was the community. She described how she found community with other Texans at Harvard Law, many of whom were Texas Exes, who would do everything from watch football games together to host professional events.

Upon graduating from law school, Price began her professional career as a corporate attorney at Weil, Gotshal, & Manges LLP. She described how her career in corporate law gave her the unique opportunity to combine her education in both finance and law. In her 10 years at the company, she worked on numerous mergers & acquisitions where she was able to bring her unique financial understanding to her work. Following her time at this firm, she also worked at Barnes & Thronburg LLP where she was a partner working primarily with private equity firms.

Although Price enjoyed her time practicing law, her experiences on various firm committees (e.g. Diversity Committee, Woman’s Task Force and Hiring Committee), highlighted the challenges organizations face when it comes to diversity and inclusion issues.  This led her to the creation of her company, Kanarys, Inc., a social enterprise focused on helping organizations build more inclusive cultures. The company is a direct response to the issues Price saw in the workplace, and the company has a goal of using data to create a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable work environment worldwide.

After the class session, the sophomore class left feeling inspired by Mandy Price and her story. She used her unique career path to talk candidly to the students about the importance of exploring academic interests and acknowledged that everyone’s path both through and after their time in CBHP will look different. In addition, her story of seeing a problem in her day-to-day life and creating her own company to create a solution, showed students that they can make real change in the world around them.