Ready, Set, Succeed
McCombs BBA Program Combines Academic Rigor with Innovative Leadership Opportunities
by Cory Leahy & Sandie Taylor
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Going hand-in-hand with a strong ethical background is
experience in leadership. While McCombs undergraduates
are known for being valedictorians and masters of
standardized testing, the recently created Undergraduate
Student Services Office is charged with helping students
advance to the next level by enhancing skills that
aren’t as easily visible on their résumé.
“We emphasize that leadership is really important,” says CeCe Ridder, director of undergraduate student services. “Companies are not just looking for people who have 4.0 grade point averages.”
Once here, many students get involved in the school’s 40 student organizations, creating their own opportunities to perform community service or meet and learn from business leaders. Their duties could range from setting up company field trips to writing up proposals for corporate sponsorships to lining up high-profile speakers, such as recent McCombs visitors Peter Coors, CEO of Coors Brewing Co., or Dell CEO Kevin Rollins. Such responsibility allows students incredible face time with high-level executives and gives them insight into different corporate cultures.
COMPETING OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM
Ridder’s department also encourages students to seek opportunities outside of the school. The department sponsors student trips to various diversity and leadership conferences and sends students to case competitions throughout the world.
Case competitions allow students to test the knowledge and skills they’ve learned in B-school. Using business cases, students compete against other top universities to solve a relevant problem in a company or industry. This year, McCombs teams won first place at the Marshall Case Competition at the University of Southern California and the 2006 Thammasat Undergraduate Business Challenge (TUBC) International Case Competition in Bangkok, Thailand, which featured undergraduate teams from 17 business schools from the United States, Canada, Spain, Singapore, Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia, China and Thailand.
“Experiences like TUBC truly prepare students for a more connected world, giving us the opportunity to take what we have learned at our own university and apply it to an international challenge,” says Sheena Paul, marketing and business honors senior.
DOING BUSINESS ABROAD
Another way McCombs students find their niche in the business world is by gaining international experience as exchange students. Each year scores of McCombs undergrads pack their suitcases and head out of the country to live abroad for anywhere from one week to a whole year during their college career.
Of all the colleges at The University of Texas at Austin, the McCombs School sends the highest percentage of students to study or work outside the U.S.—about 29 percent of McCombs students have participated in some international program. And while McCombs already leads in this category, the school’s goal is to increase this rate to 40 percent.
To achieve this, the Undergraduate Programs Office, working closely with McCombs’ Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), looks for opportunities to offer more high quality exchange programs with equally prestigious international business schools. Promoting global internships to the students and attracting international recruiters to the school is another piece. CIBER demonstrates to students that studying abroad is easier than they think—the cost is relatively equivalent to staying in Austin, and if planned correctly, will not hinder their graduation schedule.
“We emphasize that leadership is really important,” says CeCe Ridder, director of undergraduate student services. “Companies are not just looking for people who have 4.0 grade point averages.”
Once here, many students get involved in the school’s 40 student organizations, creating their own opportunities to perform community service or meet and learn from business leaders. Their duties could range from setting up company field trips to writing up proposals for corporate sponsorships to lining up high-profile speakers, such as recent McCombs visitors Peter Coors, CEO of Coors Brewing Co., or Dell CEO Kevin Rollins. Such responsibility allows students incredible face time with high-level executives and gives them insight into different corporate cultures.
COMPETING OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM
Ridder’s department also encourages students to seek opportunities outside of the school. The department sponsors student trips to various diversity and leadership conferences and sends students to case competitions throughout the world.
Case competitions allow students to test the knowledge and skills they’ve learned in B-school. Using business cases, students compete against other top universities to solve a relevant problem in a company or industry. This year, McCombs teams won first place at the Marshall Case Competition at the University of Southern California and the 2006 Thammasat Undergraduate Business Challenge (TUBC) International Case Competition in Bangkok, Thailand, which featured undergraduate teams from 17 business schools from the United States, Canada, Spain, Singapore, Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia, China and Thailand.
“Experiences like TUBC truly prepare students for a more connected world, giving us the opportunity to take what we have learned at our own university and apply it to an international challenge,” says Sheena Paul, marketing and business honors senior.
DOING BUSINESS ABROAD
Another way McCombs students find their niche in the business world is by gaining international experience as exchange students. Each year scores of McCombs undergrads pack their suitcases and head out of the country to live abroad for anywhere from one week to a whole year during their college career.
Of all the colleges at The University of Texas at Austin, the McCombs School sends the highest percentage of students to study or work outside the U.S.—about 29 percent of McCombs students have participated in some international program. And while McCombs already leads in this category, the school’s goal is to increase this rate to 40 percent.
To achieve this, the Undergraduate Programs Office, working closely with McCombs’ Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), looks for opportunities to offer more high quality exchange programs with equally prestigious international business schools. Promoting global internships to the students and attracting international recruiters to the school is another piece. CIBER demonstrates to students that studying abroad is easier than they think—the cost is relatively equivalent to staying in Austin, and if planned correctly, will not hinder their graduation schedule.
