Tag Archives: McCombs School of Business

BHP Buenos Aires Short-Term International Program – Enroll Today!

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The Short-Term Study Abroad BHP Management Program in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is not only the first-ever South American Program, but is also exclusively designed and reserved for BHP students. During the five-week summer program, students take two courses and earn six BHP credits while studying at one of the top business schools in Argentina, the Universidad de San Andres. Students take two courses – Organizational Behavior (MAN336H) and Non-Market Strategies in Emerging Markets (IB372). An English-speaking professor at the host university teaches the second course.

Professor Ethan Burris

“My class was a little different taught in Buenos Aires for a few reasons,” said Management Professor Ethan Burris, who taught the MAN336H class “Because the course is condensed to five weeks, I teach for four-hour blocks of time, which allows for deeper discussion. I didn’t feel like I had to cut a conversation short. Also students are also able to take what they learn and apply it to the non-free market of Buenos Aires first hand. Buenos Aires is a big city. It’s like a less glamorous New York City or Chicago.”

Classes are held in the morning, freeing afternoons and evenings for weekly, organized excursions to experience the vibrant culture of Buenos Aires. There is one three-day weekend incorporated into the schedule, which many students used for additional travel. A particularly popular destination for the weekend was Iguazu Falls, one of the seven natural wonders of the world. Throughout the session, the group will tour at least two large companies. Summer 2013 tours included: Danone (food production); Tenaris (oil and gas); and Cartocor (packaging).

Iguazu Falls, one of the seven wonders of the world

The 2013 group. Submitted by Dana Hwu

As a current BHP student, there are no prerequisites to participate in the program. There are 25 spots available each summer. Students do not need to speak or understand Spanish to join the program. Both courses are taught in English and the group is accompanied by a cultural liaison. The liaison is generally a graduate student that has traveled to the area before, knows it well, and speaks the language. Registration is first-come, first-served and opens today. Attend the Short-Term International Programs Information Session Wednesday, October 2, at 3 p.m., in CBA 3.304. Read more about the experience from the students who went on the trip below.

Dana Hwu

“I had an absolutely amazing time in Argentina! I am so incredibly happy and thankful I went because I don’t think I would have ever gone to South America without this opportunity pulling me there. The culture was so different, and it was unlike any other experience.” – Dana Hwu

Photo of Buenos Aires submitted by Rachel Solomon

“I can’t even begin to pick one favorite aspect! Everything from the coffee, to the architecture to the weather to the classes to the people I spent my time with to the excursions and beyond made me fall in love with the trip. I never wanted to leave.” – Rachel Solomon

“One weekend, we tagged along with a travel agency to a northwestern city called Mendoza, which is at the foothills of the Andes Mountains. We took a horseback tour along the mountains guided by a gaucho (Argentine cowboy) and had asado afterwards, which is basically a huge meal of fresh vegetables and barbequed meat. The food was delicious and the view was absolutely breathtaking.” – Amy Yu

George Chidiac

“McCombs prides itself on diversity. Studying with local students was a concrete example of McCombs walking the talk. Not only were I and 24 other BHP students able to study with Argentinians, but we also had French foreign exchange students with us in our International Business course. A melting pot of students from three different countries, we were all able to contribute in ways I never imagined. Weird as it may seem, articles we read came to life when Argentinian and French students were able to validate claims and expand on others, such as when we discussed the black market.” – George Chidiac

Student Profile: Ryan Lieberman – Co-Founder of Camp SPARK

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Student Profile: Ryan Lieberman – Co-Founder of Camp SPARK

Ryan Lieberman, a freshman in the program, started Camp SPARK, with his brother Blake, in the Summer of 2010. As a freshman in high school, Ryan knew he wanted to gain experience in operating a business. He decided to merge his passions for community service and athletics to create Camp SPARK. The camp has come a long way from the first session held in Ryan’s backyard. It is now available nationwide. Learn more about Camp SPARK and Ryan’s plans for the future as a BHP student.

What is Camp SPARK?

SPARK stands for Strong Powerful Athletic Rocking Kids. The camp is as much about sportsmanship as it is sports and it helps kids learn social skills in a way that they can easily connect with and understand, through sports and activities. At Camp SPARK, campers play games altered to the camp such as “Extreme Duck, Duck Goose.” Children ages 5–13 can participate in Camp SPARK. It’s a camp run by kids, for kids, because the set-up is unique in that it’s a business opportunity for high school students to start camps for younger kids.

How were you inspired to start the camp?

I’m very much an entrepreneurial-type of person. I love the idea of being my own boss and working for myself. So, the summer after my freshman year of high school I started thinking of ways that I could start my own business to gain experience being my own boss and familiarize myself with the processes involved in building a business.

I’ve always been passionate about community service and have been very active in Big Brothers Big Sisters. The bond I built with my “little” is a big part of what inspired me to reach out to children. I love the idea of directly influencing someone’s life and seeing change happen – knowing you were part of it. As for the idea of a camp, I went to summer camp all my life and just loved it. I knew opening a camp would be fun, something I could do well, and it would lead to a good experience.

The support of my parents was also influential. My dad is my biggest role model and he really encouraged me to do what I love and run the show.

How did you get the camp up and running?

The first summer, my parents were very supportive of what I was trying to accomplish and agreed to sponsor the start-up of Camp SPARK. The camp was run out of my backyard the first year. To get campers, my brother and I called and emailed over a hundred parents from our school directory and got 12 campers to enroll for the week. I didn’t make a lot of money the first summer, however I learned a lot of lessons.

The next summer I was a lot more organized and a much better marketer. I set up a Facebook page and sent out a video link to my email list. I also received a lot of good word of mouth promotion.  Participation almost tripled to 35 kids a day. I ran the camp twice as long and profited nearly $13,000. The next year, we created a website and increased marketing. A larger facility became a necessity. I negotiated a deal with my school and relocated the camp. It worked out really well. That’s about the time I realized that I had a reproducible business and that if I could do this, other people could too. I began looking for city partners to initiate Camp SPARK in their area. Not just in Texas, but nationwide. We opened a girls’ camp that summer and our first camp outside of Dallas with my cousin Zach in Austin and they both went really well.

The following year we put an ad on Facebook and everything really took off from there. Over the last four summers we have grown from a backyard camp into a nine-location business in five cities across the country (Dallas, Austin, San Francisco, Boston and Denver). Hundreds of kids are now Camp SPARK campers.  We have four boys’ camps, five girls’ camps, six city partners and employ over 60 people.  We have an accountant, a lawyer and an insurance agent. We have learned how to create really good systems and how to protect our business and ourselves.

Each camp is tailored to the location. For example, in San Francisco, the surrounding neighborhood has a lot of under-privileged kids, so that camp is corporate sponsored and doesn’t charge campers and places a special emphasis on reinforcing the importance of education. It’s important to know the community and the needs of that community so a difference can be made.

What does the future hold for Camp SPARK?

I hope Camp SPARK continues to be as successful as it has been. Now that I’ve started college, I still want to grow Camp SPARK and keep it as a source of income, but I’m looking for someone to take over my role of overseeing all of the operations. Starting and running the camp has been an amazing experience and now I’m ready to see what my next endeavor will be.

What does the future hold for you?

Running a sports camp has been a lot of fun and a great experience.  I plan to start more businesses and hopefully continue with sports-related work, but not necessarily in the camp setting. I know I ultimately want to be my own boss, so any experience I can continue to gain in operating businesses would definitely be of interest to me. My plan is to use what I am learning to pursue my next business ideas and also to help other kids start their own businesses.  One of the things I am excited about within the Business Honors program is the people in it.  I am going to have great classmates to learn and work with, and hopefully one day start businesses together with.

Alumni Spotlight: Amy Bell – ED and Head of Principal Investments for J.P. Morgan Social Finance

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Amy Bell, BHP ’03, MPA ’03, is an Executive Director and Head of Principal Investments for J.P. Morgan’s Social Finance business unit in New York City. The portfolio Amy manages seeks to achieve positive impact on low-income and excluded populations around the world, in addition to generating financial returns. She is also co-president of the Board of Directors for the Microfinance Club of New York and is actively engaged with Net Impact, Student Sponsor Partners and the New York Road Runners.

Tell me about your career progression leading up to your current position.

When I graduated, I went to Deloitte in Dallas and spent time as a fraud investigator. I was interested in consulting and international work, and there was opportunity there to do both. After a couple of years, I felt like I needed to expand my skill set and began exploring my alternatives. I interviewed for a position in investment banking with the J.P. Morgan team in Dallas and really clicked with them. In 2005 I joined as an Analyst in the Consumer Retail coverage group. I really enjoyed the work and thought I would be best served to spend some time at the firm’s headquarters in New York for a bit. I moved in 2007 to join our Mergers and Acquisitions group as an Associate, working with clients on their strategic goals, and never ended up moving back. I had always been interested in doing something in economic development and shortly after I moved here, the firm formed a Social Finance division. I did some volunteer work for that division while in my role in M&A. The volunteer work turned into a full-time opportunity, and I joined the Social Finance group in 2010 to manage an investment portfolio for the team. It was the perfect fit.

What kind of impact has your portfolio made?

We have $100 million that we are investing in best-in-class emerging fund managers who are able to identify financially sustainable businesses that work to improve the lives of low-income and underserved populations around the world. We refer to investments with this kind of dual objective as “impact investments”. We have committed just over half of the $100 million now. And as of the end of 2012, we had improved livelihoods for 14 million people through these investments. Those improvements include access to healthcare, education and a number of things that contribute to a more secure and healthy livelihood for an individual and his family. We don’t judge our success on the type of improvement but rather on how these companies are using their capital in an efficient way to generate impact.

In addition to success of the portfolio, we also want to demonstrate that  commercial organizations like JPMorgan Chase can engage in impact investing. Our group contributes research and thought leadership to deepen awareness and understanding of effective impact investing strategies. It is all part of a larger strategic effort to support this type of innovative finance worldwide and to create a positive impact in the communities in which JPMorgan Chase operates.

What are the most challenging aspects of your job?

Day-to-day, the bulk of what I do is focused on managing the portfolio – identifying and structuring deals and then managing our investments to achieve our financial and impact objectives. We have a high expectation for the portfolios. We are managed as a business and should be a financially viable activity, so I have a large responsibility for ensuring that occurs. We are essentially starting a new business from scratch inside of a large firm, so that is a challenge.

What are the most rewarding aspects of your job?

Because of the nature of the work that we do, we come into contact with incredibly smart people who passionately care about making an impact with the tools that the private sector offers. It’s hard work for anyone participating in this space, so to be able to find like-minded souls in this quest is fantastic. I also love visiting with our fund managers to see where our dollars are having an impact. That is very rewarding. Last October, I went to Kenya to visit with Wilmar Flowers, a company getting investment support from the African Agricultural Capital Fund, one of our investees. Wilmar is an exporter of smallholder-supplied flowers. Their flowers are sold in European markets. This company provides smaller farms with the opportunity to sell in markets where only large farms sold before, thereby increasing and diversifying their source of income. Today they purchase from 3,000 farmers across Kenya. Our fund’s investment will enable them to engage an additional 5,000 to 8,000 farmers in the coming years.

What does the Microfinance Club of New York do and why did you get involved in it?

It is an information platform for people who want to learn more about that sector. Microfinance refers broadly to the provision of financial services to low-income or underserved populations. Microfinance is what got me excited about leveraging a for-profit business model to create social or environmental change. I became a member of the Board of MFCNY in 2009, serving in various capacities and now act as co-president. It is very relevant to what I do now.

Philanthropy is a keen interest of yours. Why do you choose to give and what causes are you most passionate about?

It is important to me because I am only where I am today because of good fortune and the many good acts of people who supported me along the way. I didn’t set out to pursue a career to do well financially, but I have found one that allows me to do so. I want to use that money to provide support to others and communities that I feel a connection to. I want others to have the experience I had at UT, so I give to the university. I support breast cancer research and am very passionate about education, so I also give to that. I want to be active in giving to these causes now while I have the means.

What does corporate social responsibility mean to you?

It has a bit of a mixed reputation. There are a lot of companies that do it well, and I think what good companies do is find a way to make it relevant to the business and integrate it into the overall strategy, not just do it for Public Relations. There is a lot of talk right now about whether it actually generates shareholder value, and I think it does. When done well, it will generate real, long-term value for the company and its stakeholders.

What advice do you have for current BHP Students?

When I look back at my career to date, one element that has been consistent throughout is that I have been fortunate to have good relationships with people who have been willing to mentor me. I have worked hard to maintain those relationships, and they, in turn, helped me with big decisions and to grow in my career. Seek those relationships out and make sure you tend to them, even if you move to another job or another state. I hope I can do that for someone else during the course of my career. Good relationships are critical in every facet of your life, both personal and professional, so don’t take them for granted.

Internship Spotlight: Michael Valdez – BHP Junior

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Internship Spotlight: Michael Valdez – BHP Junior

BHP junior, Michael Valdez, knew beginning his freshman year that he wanted to do an internship with Google. Starting the search for an internship early paid off when Michael was offered an intern position at the Google headquarters in Mount View, California. Michaels tells how his initial plans were to continue on to law school, but after a summer in Silicon Valley, life as a Googler may prove more persuasive.

Location: Mt. View, CA

Title: BOLD (Building Opportunities in Leadership Development) Intern

What steps did you take to secure your internship?

I started the summer after my freshman year. I participated in BOLD Immersion, where Google invites college freshmen to their headquarters to meet and greets to feel you out and get to know you. I applied for the BOLD Internship that following November. This specific internship has an expedited application process; there are no essays, but a lot of interviews. I knew exactly what team I wanted to be a part of so I made sure I did a lot of research and prepared for every interview.

What were the responsibilities for this role?

I worked with the Google Grants Team, which donates AdWords to non-profit organizations. My role was to use statistics to help the team out and look at the program as a whole. I used a lot of statistics, data analysis and Excel.

Describe the culture within the organization.

Unique. The biggest part was the transparency, being open and honest with both Google users and employees. We made a dedicated effort to allow employees to be open and give feedback. There wasn’t any sort of Ivory Tower feeling. My boss worked on the ground floor. I had access to my manager and my manager’s manager. I was able to meet and have lunch with the VP and SVP of my department. There are no closed-door offices; the people were welcoming and easy to talk to.

What was most surprising or unexpected thing you experienced?

It was better than college. I honestly didn’t think any job would be better than college. Google had a college vibe with free food and transportation. Employees even call the workplace “campus.”

What advice would you offer your peers in the Honors Program about getting the most out of an internship?

It’s most important to be assertive in meeting people when you get there. I would constantly try to set up lunch and coffee appointments with people within Google. Not just recruiters, but people in other departments too. Go out and just really enjoy your experience. Don’t just get to know the people in your area and pigeon-hole yourself. Silicon Valley is especially open to that type of culture.

How did you find classes in the Business Honors Program to be applicable during your internship?

A lot of things I was doing I realized — wow, I just took a final on this six weeks ago. I used a lot of things I learned in Statistics 371H such as regression analysis, data analysis. Really just math in general was useful. Professor Kumar was awesome. He did a good job of getting that material drilled into our heads and really making sure we were ready to take on these roles.

How did this organization ensure you got the most out of your internship experience?

Google pulled out all of the stops. You’re assigned to a mentor that has nothing to do with your job, just to help integrate you into the Google community and show you around. Then you have a manager that sets your objectives and helps you with what you need to do your job. I met with my manager day-to-day and discussed my OKR objectives and key results. Interns are also grouped into a BOLD Team, which sets up classes for you to go to weekly and listen to executive speakers. There were tons of events put on for BOLD interns.

How did this internship affect or influence your future career?

Right now my major is Management Information Systems (MIS) and my original plan was to continue on to law school. However, after my experience in the tech world I now realizeI’m not going to law school. I feel really good about my tech skills, like coding. Google is really good about getting you comfortable around technology and keeping you confident in knowing what you’re doing. I really like the tech world and I really like Silicon Valley. I hope to go back next summer.

What are the most valuable lessons you gained from this internship?

Communication is probably the best means of advancing yourself in your internship no matter what you’re doing. Communicating with your team about what you’re doing and being collaborative is the key to success. Being able to create well-written emails is so important to an internship or really any job. It’s not about your area of expertise, but how well you’re able to communicate those findings.

BHP Freshmen Kick Off the School Year

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Written by Ashley Alcantara

This past weekend the Business Honors Program freshman class attended the Leadership Kickoff at the John Newcombe Ranch. During their stay, students were given everything they need to make the most of their first year in the BHP. The beginning of college, albeit cheesy, is also the beginning of the rest of your life. Every college freshman is faced with massive changes that can often be overwhelming, but at Leadership Kickoff students learned about how to approach challenges and be successful.

College is full of risk-taking and facing unfamiliar situations, which can be the most rewarding experiences if we allow ourselves to try them. A ropes course at Newcombe Ranch allowed BHP freshmen to learn how true this can be when they were given the opportunity to jump from a towering height while attached to a rope. While completely safe, “The Scream” was one of the scariest things I have ever convinced myself to do. However, the reward of flying through the air as I swung on the rope was invigorating. Leadership Kickoff demonstrated the benefits of taking a leap into the unknown, such as trying a new extracurricular activity or taking a challenging class.

BHP is most importantly about community and teamwork, as classmates can always depend on each other. Teamwork and trust were put to the ultimate test on a ropes course station where two students were elevated high off the ground with only each other as support. Complete trust was needed to walk across the rope without falling off. Likewise, action packed games and activities during the weekend required clear communication and cooperation for any team to be victorious. The freshman class learned that we can always depend on each other, whether its 50 feet in the air while balancing on a rope or within a professional setting twenty years from now.

Students were also given a chance to speak with alumni, meet PepsiCo representatives, swim in the pool, do the wobble at a dance party, eat delicious food, act out hilarious skits and attend the formal convocation ceremony for BHP. Most importantly though, during two extremely fun and unforgettable days, the class of 2017 learned that by overcoming fears and working together we will be extraordinary.