This past May, a committee of four MBA alumni, two MBA students, and two MBA staff representatives came together to review funding proposals for student projects set for the 2020-21 school year. The funds come from an endowment established by MBA alumni in 2005—the MBA Alumni Endowed Excellence Fund (MAEEF). This yearly awarding process is the most direct way that alumni invest in students and the legacy of the MBA program.

This year the committee awarded $25,000 to support a wide variety of projects:

The Graduate Consulting Group (GCG) will be able to unlock their most ambitious goals for GCG and the class of 2022 to broaden recruiting pipelines at all their target firms. Their plan is to unite McCombs advocates from each target firm and office to counsel with GCG leadership, Employer Relations, and Career Management. By hosting subsequent mock interviews, they hope to solidify early firm interest in first-year students and better promote cross-collaboration, as those same McCombs advocates observe their potential and preparation firsthand. In addition, the planned GCG Summit will further elevate McCombs’ profile externally and increase the caliber of our internal preparation and competitiveness of consulting recruits.

The eQual group is committed to organizing events and programming that support the McCombs School’s commitment to LGBTQ+ issues as well as diversity and inclusion at large. Funding from MAEEF will allow them to focus on providing higher quality events and programming that educate and entertain existing McCombs students, while increasing engagement efforts with prospective students.

The Crisis Challenge is a 24-hour simulation with the aim of giving MBA students an opportunity to test their leadership skills in a high-pressure environment that reflects real challenges business leaders experience. With support from the MAEEF, this challenge will not only give current students a platform to sharpen their leadership skills, but also create a unique opportunity to bring Alumni back to campus to share their wisdom.

The Graduate Business Council (GBC) will host a series of bi-weekly trivia contests with the aim of providing a greater sense of community among McCombs students. These contests will provide opportunities for the student body to coalesce, with explicit emphasis on fostering greater relations between: international and domestic students, first and second years, as well as connecting students with a range of social interests. The GBC Diversity & Inclusion Chair as well as the International Student rep will collaborate to ensure the questions and the trivia contest are structured to create a welcoming and inclusive environment.

The Health Innovation Fellows (HIF) and the Healthcare Association (HCA) will use the support from MAEEF to launch the second running of the McCombs Healthcare Case Competition. This competition brings together passionate healthcare students from across the University of Texas and continues to cement McCombs School of Business as an innovative leader in healthcare.

The Graduate Entrepreneurship and Innovation Club (The Club) will use the funding to re-build connections between current students and alumni in order to inspire students to become creative self-starts who can enact positive change in their future corporations, startups, communities, and world. Some of what The Club intends to accomplish include:

  • Establishing regular student/alumni entrepreneurial networking and learning events
  • Bring together the top entrepreneurs and investors in Austin with McCombs MBA students in candid, intimate, Socratic-style discussion settings
  • Facilitating a weekly “Working Entrepreneurs” group as an active check-in meeting for students who are starting their own ventures
  • Enacting a module during first-year orientation to shepherd the innovative spirit within the McCombs MBA program from Day 1 of the MBA experience