Category Archives: Student Profiles

Student Spotlight: Amberlea Tribble

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Student Spotlight: Amberlea Tribble

amberlea_tribbleAmberlea Tribble is a sophomore majoring in BHP and Finance. She is a dedicated and accomplished equestrian, competing in hunter, jumper and equitation events.

“Every girl wants a pony, and I was able to have one,” she jokes. As a young girl she trained with her horse, but became committed to enhancing her techniques in high school as it was a  new challenge for her.  Currently, Amberlea and her horse, Prince, compete on an individual and University level with the UT equestrian team. all-that-jpg

Balancing BHP coursework and the equestrian team is challenging Amberlea admits. “I ride about twice a week and try to compete at least once every two months,” she says. She did have to cut back from high schoool, when she was riding five days a week. Amberlea also serves as a Startup Meetup Manager for the Longhorn Entrepreneurship Agency. UT LEA is part of UT’s Student Government. It connects UT students to resources, and provides opportunities for developing unique and innovative business ideas. She is also involved in the University Finance Association, an organization that teaches students how to invest, and introduces them to different investment opportunities.

Before graduating, Amberlea plans to travel to Europe to study abroad and learn more about their culture. She will also continue to compete over the next two years. We look forward to following her accomplishments!

Senior Nadia Senter is living her dream working for Universal Music Group

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Senior Nadia Senter is living her dream working for Universal Music Group

nadia-senterBHP senior Nadia Senter has wanted to work in the music industry since high school. She got her wish when she landed a coveted internship with the Grammys, which then led to an even more coveted internship with Universal Music Group (UMG), eventually leading to a full-time job with UMG which she will start this summer. It has been a long journey full of hard work and persistence, but that persistence has paid off.

As a senior in high school at Westlake High School in Austin, Nadia called nearly 100 places in Austin trying to land her first internship in the music industry. Finally one person, Freddie Krc, said yes, and took her on. Freddie owns his own record label, has a lot of music industry connections and he was a governor on the board of The Recording Academy, which administers the Grammys. He encouraged her to get involved in GrammyU in college.

Each year GrammyU hires two interns from each of their chapters who are juniors. Nadia landed the internship her junior year. It isn’t your typical internship, as it is a year-round commitment and requires 20 hours a week. It was through a connection she made at GrammyU that Nadia made an introduction to UMG.

The UMG interview process was rigorous, with multiple rounds of interviews and reference checks for all of her previous jobs. Nadia was one of only 60 students nation-wide to land the internship. Again, she was expected to work year-round, part-time during the year and full-time during the summer. Nadia doesn’t mind the work load, because she loves what she is doing. She is a College and Lifestyle Marketing Representative, serving as UMG’s boots on the ground in Austin. When one of their artist’s comes through, she goes to the show, then reports on the venue, how the show went, the demographics of the audience, and builds relationships with the venues and record stores in Austin. She is also working on new artist development, coming up with ideas to gain exposure with college students in the area.

Once a semester Nadia and the entire intern team are flow to the UMG headquarters in Santa Monica for a type of case competition. Each team is given a new artist and tasked with determining plans for how to market their artist. The teams then pitch their plans to the executives. The interns are also introduced to employees in all departments. If interns in their program do well, they will be hired full-time and will have the opportunity to pick which department they are most interested in working in, so it is important that they understand all the functions at the company. Nadia is still figuring out what function she prefers, but knows she has an interest in entertainment law, and is considering pursuing a law degree in the future.

Reflecting back upon her success in landing these coveted internships, Nadia says networking was the key to her success. “I went to every possible event in the music industry that I could,” she says. “Getting a good mentor, which I had with Freddie, was also important.”

Student Spotlight: Katie Stephens – HBA President

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Student Spotlight: Katie Stephens – HBA President

katie-stephensThis year’s Honors Business Association (HBA) president is Katie Stephens. Katie is a senior majoring in BHP and Supply Chain Management, with a minor in MIS. She is from El Paso, and attended Coronado High School. In addition to her involvement in HBA, she has also served as treasurer of Texas Sweethearts and leads a weekly prayer group for the Baptist Student Ministries. She loves being in Austin and can be found paddle boarding on Lady Bird Lake on the weekends.

Katie has loved being a UT Student and being in BHP. When she started searching for the right college, she knew she wanted to combine quantitative skills with a social atmosphere. She also knew she wanted to be challenged. She had researched BHP and knew it was competitive and that she would be challenged. “Your BHP peers push you in class, encourage you and teach you about things you never knew before,” she says. “My classmates are so smart. They are extremely competitive, but that doesn’t affect how kind they are.”

Katie first experienced HBA as a freshman on the bus ride to the BHP Leadership Kickoff. Members of the HBA executive team were on the bus and struck up a conversation with her, helping to connect her with upperclassmen who were active in groups she was interested in joining. “Freshman year I went to every meeting and loved it. It was my home. My first semester I felt really far from home, and HBA helped me adjust,” says Katie.

When asked about her favorite HBA event, she quickly answers the Konana/Agarwal DWAP (Dinner with a Professor).  This event is a favorite for many students. Of all of the DWAP events HBA puts on each year, this one, hosted in the home of BHP MIS professors, garners the largest turnout. Katie tries to go every year and has enjoyed bonding with classmates and professors at this and other DWAP events.

One of Katie’s and the HBA executive team’s goals this year is to increase inter-class relations. “Students in the same grade level are really close, but it is common that they won’t know anyone in the grades above them, especially freshmen,” she says. HBA is working to create events and programs that will help freshmen get to know those in the classes above them. Their hope is that eventually students will start to form “BHP families”, and will have connections in each of the classes to go to for help.

Katie values the friendships she has made through HBA and what it has added to her BHP experience. “HBA is the best way to get to know your BHP peers and to interact with faculty outside of class,” she says. We are lucky to have her leading this year’s great executive team, and look forward to another year of memorable HBA events!

Student Spotlight: Amy Enrione

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Student Spotlight: Amy Enrione
Amy receiving the Rising Star Award

Amy receiving the Rising Star Award

BHP Senior Amy Enrione has accomplished a great deal in her four years here. Coming into the program, she knew she wanted to bring service learning into the curriculum, and through a lot of hard work and perseverance, she was able to accomplish that. She has been honored with multiple awards, including the BBA/MPA Rising Star Award, the Pal—Make a Difference Award, the Texas Exes Presidential Leadership Award, the Cactus StandoUT Award, the BHP Outstanding Student Award, and the UBC George Mitchell Award, and was selected as a finalist for the Texas Parents Outstanding Student Award.

As a student in New York, how did you learn about BHP and what made you decide to choose UT and BHP?

I came from a big Longhorn family. My mom and aunts and uncles all went to UT, so it was always on my radar as a school I should consider. I was interested in business and started looking into McCombs and the Business Honors Program. I was blown away by BHP’s quality of the education. I love working in teams and am not competitive, so the collaborative BHP environment fit my personality. I received the Texas Exes Forty Acres Scholarship, which is a merit-based full-ride, so that made the decision very easy for me.

What do you think out-of-state students don’t know about BHP and UT that you wish they did?

One thing I realized once I decided to come to UT is that BHP’s incredible reputation hasn’t quite spread outside of Texas. My friends really didn’t know how great of a school McCombs is—it was never a school they’d considered. This lack of knowledge about the school is a real shame, so I try plug the program and UT to my connections in NY whenever possible.

You worked hard to bring the community service requirement to UT. What was the process for doing that and where does it stand now?

I started by doing a lot of research on what other schools are doing, particularly Wharton’s Management 100 class. The thing I liked most about Wharton was that every business freshman did skills-based service as part of their core curriculum. I think it is so important to give back to your community using your specific talents. When I saw UT didn’t have a similar program, I decided I wanted to bring that opportunity to UT. I also didn’t want that program at Wharton to be a selling point over UT for future students.

After researching the benefits of active learning and engagement and the pros and cons of the Wharton model, I wrote a proposal and brought it to Dr. Prentice. He felt it was worth pursuing, so he brought my proposal to the Undergraduate Program Committee, who provided feedback on it. We then I presented the idea to Dean Platt, the BBA dean. He became a huge advocate for it. I had originally envisioned it as a full class, but we kept running into issues trying to do that. We brainstormed and came back to the table with a shorter requirement targeted all freshmen. After two years of work, a four hour service requirement launched in 2014 as part of the McCombs Freshmen Interest Group (FIG) program. We worked with the Undergraduate Program Office and the Longhorn Center for Community Engagement to bring the requirement to life. The LCCE, particularly Dr. Katie Pritchett and Dr. Suchi Gururaj, have been hugely instrumental in the process of implementing this program.

The impact of the program has been incredible; I’m so glad that we’ve been able to connect McCombs students with their communities in a meaningful way. In the first year the program had a $51,000 impact on the City of Austin, and this year the impact grew to $54,000. To incentive students, we created a friendly competition between FIGs that measured service hours per student. 92% of McCombs freshmen participated in the program. The LCCE published a study on the service requirement, and found that 71% of students felt more connected to their FIG and McCombs because of the service.

What was the next step after having launched a successful program at McCombs?

This year I started working on bringing that program University-wide. The two-year McCombs pilot was instrumental in bringing a service component of FIGs school-wide; it made it very easy to show the University that a service requirement was impactful and didn’t cost much money. I worked with the LCCE to provide the FIG mentors with all the materials they needed to implement the program. The LCCE has already trained all of next year’s the FIG mentors in how to facilitate a meaningful service project and post-service reflection; the service requirement will officially be a part of the FIG curriculum next fall for all UT freshmen.

I am also trying to get service learning courses to be recognized on the registrar so students can search for those classes easily. We think this will really increase demand for service learning courses. This project is still in the works and we will hopefully be working with the new Provost to do something in the future.

What do you feel you will leave having accomplished over your four years here?

I feel that my biggest lasting legacy will be the community service program. It is now institutionalized and will continue to take place for the foreseeable future. My work in this area will continue to have impact far after I leave campus. On a personal level, I have really enjoyed mentoring and giving back to the BHP community. I still grab lunch with and run case interviews with some of my mentees from last year through the BHP Peer Mentor Program. I hope my dedication to helping my peers has inspired people to really invest in each other.

How did you successfully juggle all your activities and school work?

I am very organized and love calendars and check lists. They really help me plan out my day. I plan down to the 15-minute block. I also color-code my calendars so I know what I am spending time on during the week. If I see something is taking over my week, I can prioritize and not commit to another event for that organization.

I also don’t commit to things I’m not passionate about. I try to only join organizations or take leadership positions because I really care about the org. That way, I am motivated by my activities because I am doing the things I enjoy. This strategy helps me avoid burn-out, even with a packed schedule.

If you could go back and give advice to yourself as a freshman, what would you say?

Freshman me was really ambitious and that certainly helped. Keep that drive and enthusiasm because that is what gets you places, but also be willing to re-evaluate and adjust what you are doing. I was really set on a certain path and even when I realized it wasn’t the best path for me, I stayed with it longer than I should have. At some point I realized I needed to cut ties with things I wasn’t passionate about, but this point came a bit late for me. I would have had a lot more time to do the things I cared about if I had cut ties sooner. I am currently not involved in anything I was involved in freshman year. It takes times to find the things you love and figure out what really excites you. You don’t really know yourself yet as a freshman. Know that it is okay to let go.

What’s next for you?

I will be working as a Business Analyst for McKinsey & Company in Houston. I will be a generalist, but I love operations and pricing, so I am going to try to focus on these areas. In the long-term I want to work in the non-profit sector. I want to learn as much as I can about operational effectiveness while at McKinsey, and then use that expertise to streamline operations for an education nonprofit.

 

Student Spotlight – Suchi Sundaram

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Student Spotlight – Suchi Sundaram

SuchiLike many BHP students, Suchi Sundaram came into BHP knowing exactly what she wanted to do after graduation. She wrote her admissions essay about her aspirations, which included eventually serving as the Secretary of State. Suchi, who is now a senior studying BHP and MPA in the program, even secured an internship the summer after her freshman year with a congresswoman in Washington, DC. Out of around 200 interns on the Hill that summer, Suchi was one of only three freshmen interns. She was immensely grateful for the experience and felt it was life-changing for her; not only was she able to learn key communication and interpersonal skills, but she also realized she did not want to pursue a public sector role upon graduation.

“I realized I wanted to do something involving more technical or quantitative skills, ideally utilizing those skills to help others,” said Suchi. That fall, she took the BHP Sophomore Lyceum course and had the opportunity to hear Amy Bell speak. Amy is a BHP alumnae working for JPMorgan as Executive Director of Sustainable Finance. Her work connected with Suchi, and it clicked for her that she could work in impact investing and satisfy her desire to do quantitative work while helping others.

She set up an informational interview with Amy over the phone, and Amy graciously spent nearly an hour providing key insights into her career path. She helped Suchi discern what path she should take to work in a position similar to hers. She suggested Suchi start her career in investment banking and then work her way into impact investing. After the call, Suchi pursued and secured an internship with JPMorgan in investment banking. Amy even met with Suchi again prior to her interview to give her advice about the recruiting process.

Suchi’s extracurricular experiences at UT have also helped to prepare her for the future. She got involved in Global Brigades her sophomore year and went with the group to Ghana, where she was able to help spread financial awareness and create sustainable business plans to empower local communities. She has also served as president for the Indian Cultural Association, spearheading a grass-roots recruitment initiative as well as a national Bollywood Dance Competition called Jhalak. “These experiences have been invaluable to me; they taught me how to lead. As a leader, you really have to be able to listen to everyone and unify a vision,” she said of her prior leadership experiences.

For the past year, Suchi has been focused on developing a social finance fund at UT. Similar funds exist at peer institutions, and she has been researching those models to try to determine which model would work best for UT. She continues to research this area with a McCombs Business, Government, and Society professor. Last year, she presented her findings to the Dean of McCombs and is currently talking to social enterprise organizations on campus to increase support for the cause.

“I was very confused for my first two years, but now I feel like I have really figured out my path,” she said. Suchi’s path is not uncommon for BHP students. Many come into the program feeling pretty certain about their path, only to determine that they want to pursue something else. Through internships, being active in organizations, advising appointments, and guidance from alumni of the program, students are able to find their path and set themselves up for success.