Hispanic Heritage Month, celebrated from September 15 – October 15, is a national celebration of the accomplishments and cultural history of Hispanic and Latinx individuals and organizations in the United States. At Texas McCombs, our students are a constant reminder of the positive impact that diverse backgrounds and perspectives bring to our communities. We are proud to highlight some of our Latin American & Hispanic MBA Association (LAHMBA) students’ stories, their “Why McCombs?” and LAHMBA initiatives this year.
Category: Student Orgs (page 2 of 3)
As Pride Month comes to an end, Texas McCombs would like to highlight how our Engaged Queer & Ally (eQual) MBAs organization has continued to support the McCombs and Austin communities, share resources and organize exclusively in a digital platform to celebrate Pride this year. Despite being in the middle of a global pandemic, McCombs students continue to stay engaged, as world-changing leaders committed to serving our many diverse communities.
eQual MBA students at Texas McCombs
Who are eQual MBAs?
Engaged Queer & Ally (eQual) MBAs, McCombs’ LGBTQ+ affinity group, is dedicated to promoting diversity & inclusion in the @utexasmba program & community at large. Every year, they’re committed to recruiting more LGBTQ+ prospective students, organizing regular events, connecting to alumni, and building relationships with allies and sponsors. Furthermore, through their efforts, eQual MBAs bring forth educational discussions to McCombs about gender and sexuality, advocate for allyship and inclusion, and connect members to the larger Austin LQBTQ+ community. Overall, the group is divided into three different pillars: allyship, alumni, and service.
Aside from being full-time MBA students, everyone involved in the organization has faced additional challenges throughout their eQual MBA journey. Despite being the smallest affinity group at Texas McCombs, they continue to grow. Currently, they hold 14 LGBTQ+ members — a record high for the club – along with many allies as members. 2020-2021 co-presidents Andie Parazo and Matt Mason look forward to continuing to grow membership and offering support and resources to the LGBTQ+ and ally community at McCombs.
The eQual MBAs organization, to me, means having a community that will always be there to support me. The members of eQual are not only the people that I rely on to help organize events for the advancement of queer and all underrepresented people’s rights, but they are also some of my closest friends in the MBA program.
— Matt Mason, eQqual MBAs Co-President, MBA Class of 2021
Allyship, Intersectionality and the Importance of Showing Up
This past October, the Graduate Marketing Network at Texas McCombs hosted their annual Marketing Trek with the MBA Career Management team. 19 first-year students traveled to New York City and visited the offices of Samsung, Google, Pinterest, Adobe, and ZX Ventures!
Career Treks give Full-Time MBAs the opportunity to learn about their industry to become more familiar with the culture of the companies in a real-world context. The companies provide presentations, Q&A sessions, and opportunities to network with alumni and executive management.
MBA students take New York
New York City holds many business opportunities in hundreds of different markets. We caught up with MBA ’20 students Alicia Mercolino, Xingpin Liu, and Saransh Gupta to hear about their experiences and takeaways from the trek– Saransh is drawn to the city for tech, Xingpin for marketing opportunities, and Alicia wanted to explore the options with a goal to move to NYC in the future.
“My goal is to move back to New York with a full-time offer in hand. I was interested in learning more about and meeting people at companies with MBA opportunities and McCombs alumni.” – Alicia Mercolino
McCombs recently held our annual International Night! For the past 14 years, International Night, hosted by IMBASA (International MBA Student Association) & the MBA+ Leadership Program, has been the largest MBA event of the year, attracting 1000+ attendees.
Texas MBAs from all over the world shared their culture with their classmates through food, dancing, traditional games, and entertainment. Texas MBA students, staff, alumni, and their families took a break from their academic rigors to rediscover the diversity of McCombs.
For many people, the first few things they think of when they think of Texas are the energy market and BBQ. However, Texas is also home to some of the finest medical centers and research facilities in the country, and is quickly becoming a hotbed for healthcare innovation. With the forward-looking Dell Medical School opening up this summer, the future of healthcare looks very optimistic.
The MBA Healthcare Association at TMCx
SO, in the midst of cramming for corporate finance finals, finishing human capital papers, and PowerPoint decks for strategic marketing presentations, the MBA Healthcare Association decided to take a break and trek down to Houston, TX to check out the Texas Medical Center’s TMCx accelerator and innovation labs, and Johnson & Johnson’s Innovation JLABS facilities.
The TMCx accelerator is a 4-month program that helps healthcare startups by providing offices, co-working space, and professional services to help develop and grow their business model. They even actively foster relationships between the accelerator companies and providers at the Texas Medical Center! We toured their highly modern co-working, office and education spaces, all solely devoted to healthcare companies. We also met one of their accelerator companies, Braincheck, who is developing a digital cognitive assessment tool. After chatting with them about their time as a healthcare startup and their experience in the TMCx accelerator, they quickly turned us into test subjects for their product!
The Johnson & Johnson Innovation JLABS
Moving next-door to JLABS, we were blown away by the size and modernity of the facility. Wandering through, we explored the 35,000+ square foot, state-of-the art laboratory and healthcare technology development equipment. Companies that pass the selective application process can rent out this space at an extremely reasonable rate of $1,000 per month, with JLABS creating an environment that enables these companies to focus 100% of their attention on their product development.
Touring these two facilities was not only educational and enjoyable, but also eye-opening to how healthcare innovation and product development are changing. Clearly, good times are in store for the companies at TMCx and JLABS – we can’t wait to see what’s next!
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