Student Spotlight: Gracie Chambers

BHP sophomore Gracie Chambers is a marketing major from Ft. Worth, TX. Gracie characterizes herself as a creative, with an entrepreneurial spirit. She’s interested in pursuing a career in technology, user experience design and fashion.

Coming from a high school of 82 graduates, she was looking for the complete opposite in a college experience – a large university with a winning football team! She was hoping to attend an out-of-state school, but she knew she must consider UT first. After visiting UT though, she fell in love with the campus, McCombs, and the city of Austin. The university had everything she could dream of in a college. The BHP program, with its small cohort, made her transition from a small high school to a large university ideal.

Gracie learned a great deal about business even before entering McCombs. In high school, she started her own clothing line advertising the “city pride” of Fort Worth. “I learned a lot from owning my own business,” she says. “One of the biggest things I learned was how to work with people older than me.  I learned to stand my ground, even though I was younger. I also learned how to manage people.”

Gracie admits that balancing her school work and her business was very difficult. She feels she could have taken the business to a different level, expanding into other cities, but she prioritized school and friends over the business. Due to the demands of her course load, she made the difficult decision to sell her company her freshman year. “I reached out to a few potential buyers who I thought might be interested. I put together a booklet with all of the products, and information about the company, and ended up receiving an offer from a store that sold my products.”

Selling the business was very educational for Gracie who learned all the steps firsthand, including evaluating financial statements, calculating the worth of her business, working with lawyers, negotiating with the buyer and settling taxes.

With the business sold, her focus turned back to academics. While being at McCombs has definitely been a new challenge for Chambers, the BHP community has been a highly supportive. “In BHP, I’ve made awesome friends who encourage me to keep doing my best in whatever I want to do,” she says. Gracie is also a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, and is planning to join their executive team.

Student Spotlight: Don Dao

Don Dao

BHP Sophomore Don Dao was raised a longhorn; his entire family went to UT. Even with this upbringing, he envisioned himself leaving Texas for college, but after being admitted to BHP, he ultimately decided to stay in Texas and attend UT Austin.  Don loved how BHP provides the resources of a small centralized program, with  a tight-knit community and great professors.

He is happy he ended up in Austin and is enjoying the city’s strong entrepreneurial spirit. He has been involved in the Austin start-up scene, and has been able to network through the business school community and the Austin community to get his start-ups off the ground.  He believes the entrepreneurial route allows individuals to pave their own way and fosters innovation.

Don and four other UT students are following their own innovative path, having created a start-up called Condecca. Condecca is a recruiting platform that connects college students with employers for short-term internships, short-term projects, and contract work. Don and his partners found that many students struggled with securing a good internship as an underclassman when they had no previous job experience.  “It’s a niche in the recruiting market that we’ve seen. This platform will allow students to build up their resumes, get recommendations,  and get experience that they would not otherwise have access to if they didn’t already have work experience,” he said. He hopes to eliminate the paradox of having to have experience in order to get experience.

Don has also interned with a Houston-based business technology company and is planning on interning in risk consulting this semester. In addition to his passion for business, he also stays active in two charities, the Mona Foundation and Sunflower Mission. He has helped build schools in several countries through Sunflower Mission and serves as a liaison between Mona Foundation and the Texas Wranglers, for which he serves as Vice President. 

“Giving food, water and clothes only lasts so long. Giving the people there an education as a means to escape poverty and give back to their community, has proven to be one of the most effective ways to raise entire communities out of poverty,” he said.

Don will continue to pursue his startup interests, but in the meantime, he is seeking to intern for a consulting firm or a boutique investment bank this upcoming summer. He hopes to run his own consulting or VC business one day.

Student Spotlight: Bethany Rolan

Bethany_Rolan

BHP senior Bethany Rolan was originally intimidated by the size of UT and envisioned herself at  small liberal arts college in the northeast. Her mother insisted that she apply to one Texas school, so she applied to UT Austin. She didn’t know much about BHP at the time. She had only heard about it through her college counselor. After being accepted into the program, she attended Discover BHP in the Spring of her senior year.  Bethany remembers it as an incredible experience, and appreciated that the professors really knew their students. The program was what led her to choose UT and BHP.

As an entering freshman, she aspired to be an event planner specializing in corporate events and high-end weddings. This led her to join the student organization Campus Events and Entertainment. She served on the Texas Traditions Committee planning such campus events as Texas Revue, the largest campus talent show, and 40 Acres Fest, the largest campus outdoor festival.

Bethany was honored to be accepted into Orange Jackets, the oldest women’s service organization on campus, her sophomore year. This year, she is serving as the president of the organization. She says that “it has been the biggest opportunity for development she has ever experienced” and says that trying to lead a group of driven, empowered women leaders has helped her to learn about herself, her competencies, and her leadership style. Bethany is also involved in the Best Buddies program, where she works with adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and she is a member of the Honors Business Association.

Bethany added a supply chain major her sophomore year and landed an internship with Fiat Chrysler in the area of Purchasing . She enjoyed the role, but found her career interests shifting again as she learned from her peers about the dynamic opportunities to engage new audiences, travel across the world, and work on unique projects as a management consultant. She recruited for a management consulting position her Junior year and was grateful to have the opportunity to intern with McKinsey. Bethany will return to the firm as a full-time employee after graduation.  She plans to join the women’s network at her new firm and is excited to work for a company that will let her work on projects that empower women.

In the future, she would like to consult in education and lead empathy and language campaigns for young students, teaching inclusivity. “How we are taught to talk people and how we hear people talk about others is very important,” she says. 

Having a strong support system of students who are all driven, yet passionate about diverse interests, has made a significant impact on Bethany’s BHP experience. “People are the whole point,” she says, explaining that engaging with others deeply and developing strong relationships have been the most rewarding part of college. “BHP and Orange Jackets have changed me as a person and are what I will remember most about college. Every project, initiative, and event I have helped complete on campus has been enabled by incredible people.” She wholeheartedly believes that informal mentoring from older students was instrumental in her gaining an understanding of the unique career paths she could take, which is why she is always happy to go to lunch or grab coffee with underclassmen!

Daniel Miyares: Student Spotlight

Daniel_MiyaresMaryland native Daniel Miyares has always had his heart set on the south. When he visited UT as a high school student, he fell in love with Austin’s great people, fun activities, and pleasant weather. He applied to BHP not knowing the magnitude of opportunities, benefits, and connections it has to offer. Once he began his freshman year, he quickly realized BHP was “pretty spectacular in terms of, not only the rankings, but the opportunities BHP provides on campus and post graduation.” He is a BHP and MIS major and will graduate in May 2019.

Daniel came to UT knowing that he wanted to get involved in the start-up community and create his own business, but as he started to define his college experience, a passion for social entrepreneurship and social responsibility developed. He is currently interning at a social enterprise in Austin, Care2Rock. The company will soon be pitching to a start-up incubator, and he is helping them prepare. Care2Rock is a small office, with only two full-time employees, and is in the early stages of development. Care2Rock is launching an online music tutoring platform that will positively impact the foster care community nationwide. During the course of his internship, he has identified a referral program to help them grow and expand their customer acquisition efforts, assisted in optimizing their operations, and supported other business efforts.

Daniel also interned for ZeeMee, a venture-backed startup based in Mountain View, CA, which provides an online platform for students to express themselves in a social-media friendly, three-dimensional way throughout the college and job application processes. ZeeMee is currently partnered with more than 200 colleges, from the University of Oklahoma to Carnegie Mellon, to Morehouse, who allow students to submit their pages as part of their application. Daniel worked with their outreach and their operations teams, and spent most of the last school year coordinating their internship program. Daniel characterizes ZeeMee as “an ideal of a successful startup because of their mutual respect for each other, unrelenting drive, and fun-loving attitude.”

On campus, Daniel is heavily involved in the UT Longhorn Entrepreneurship Agency. Daniel was also part of the Launchpad program, a branch of Freshmen Founders, last year as a freshman, and is now directing the program. The Launchpad program works with aspiring first-year students who are excited about entrepreneurship, but don’t know how to start. The Freshman Founders Program offers a semester long, immersive introduction to the UT and the Austin startup community. The program is a sequence of entrepreneurial seminars, workshops, and events meant to allow participants to network with the Austin startup community, and aimed at teaching them about on-campus resources available for student entrepreneurs. The organization also connects students with mentors. Daniel says he has been blown away by what students have done this year in the launch pad program.

Daniel attributes much of his success to the community of high-caliber students he has bonded with in BHP. “They are not only highly intelligent and have founded their own companies, but they have great personalities and we can share laughs.”

Alumni Spotlight: Ty Cobb, Director of Global Engagement at the HRC – Class of 2003

Ty CobbTy Cobb, BHP ’03, is the Director of Global Engagement at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Ty works to advance equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people around the world. Prior to launching HRC’s global initiative, he was instrumental in passing the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and an LGBT-inclusive Violence Against Women Act in his role as legislative counsel for HRC and while working for Senator Edward Kennedy.

You received your undergraduate degree and law degree from UT. How do you think UT and BHP prepared you for your career?
I’ve been a lawyer, lobbyist, congressional staffer, public speaker, program director, and manager. All of these roles required different skills, and many of those required were things I learned in BHP. My business background has given me a unique perspective in each of these roles. And, all those case studies were certainly helpful when planning for and launching a new program at the Human Rights Campaign.

What was your career progression after graduating from law school?
I went directly to Bracewell & Giuliani in Dallas where I worked for a year. I then moved to another firm in Washington, DC, Sidley Austin. I stayed there until I began as counsel to Senator Edward Kennedy, where I worked to secure passage of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act in the Senate. It was my first experience working on LGBT rights, but one I’ll always remember. After Senator Kennedy died, I became a lawyer and lobbyist at HRC for several years before getting the opportunity to launch a global program.

What new challenges do you face in this new role in global engagement?
Starting a new initiative from scratch has been a huge challenge. It has been an entrepreneurial adventure, and an opportunity for personal growth. Aside from that, it’s emotionally draining to see some of the more horrific situations LGBT people face across the world. Nearly 80 countries criminalize same-sex relationships – five of which actually punish individuals with death. And, on top of criminalization, several countries have now begun to outlaw public advocacy for LGBT rights. Transgender individuals, as well as those who are lesbian, gay and bisexual, face violence and persecution, some of which is government sanctioned or even condoned by the victim’s family.

There is a lot going on right now with the LGBT rights movement. What is it like being on the front lines of the fight for equality?
Nearly every day is filled with a new dramatic twist or turn. While several countries took big leaps forward last year with marriage equality and strengthening transgender rights, countries like Russia, Uganda, and Nigeria took huge steps backwards. The world is being pulled in two directions and I’m glad to be part of the momentum pulling us closer to a world where individuals aren’t denied their human rights because of who they love or who they are. One of the most rewarding aspects of my job has been meeting human rights defenders from around the world who have become the catalysts for change in their home countries.

What are you spending most of your time on in your new role?
As the LGBT community has gained ground in the U.S., our opposition has lost its momentum. Their decades-long winning streak at the ballot box ended in 2012 when we gained marriage equality in Maine, Washington, and Maryland. As such, in 2013, we started to see anti-LGBT Americans – like Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage – spending more time abroad preaching intolerance and promoting junk science. There is a growing American industry of exporting hate. And dozens of Americans and American organizations are involved in the industry. At this current moment, I’m fixated on a project to expose, combat, and counter the messages of these Americans.

What has been the most meaningful achievement in your career so far?
Being part of the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” DADT repeal was the first issue I worked on at HRC, and I became extremely close with many of the service members who lost their careers because of DADT. Many of the folks affected by DADT had spent decades serving their country only to be discharged because of who they love. The law made no sense. Repeal of the law provided the opportunity for so many in the community to heal from the experience of being told by our government that they were less than equal simply because they were gay or lesbian.

What is your pie in the sky goal for your time at the HRC?
From Cameroon to Jamaica, there are LGBT activists who are fighting to combat violence, stigma, and discrimination just because of who they are. While the laws in each country and culture may differ, these activists are working towards the goal of full inclusion and equality for fully realized LGBT lives around the world. I would like to see HRC play a pivotal role in connecting the work of activists to build a stronger, more connected global equality movement.

What advice would you have for current BHP students?
Unless you’re in the minority, you probably don’t know where you’ll be in ten years. You don’t know what opportunities will open up before you. It’s important to constantly challenge yourself to gain new skills so that you can take advantage of opportunities when they arise. If you feel comfortable in what you’re doing, it’s time to do more. I grew the most as a professional when I put myself into extremely uncomfortable situations that made me do things that I wasn’t particularly thrilled to be doing – public speaking, networking outside my usual circles, taking on monstrous writing projects, and such.