April 25, 2005
McCombs Student, First Mexican American President of UT
Student Government, Leads on Many Fronts
By Niti Dalal
When it comes to leadership, Omar Ochoa knows no bounds. Currently in his third year, Ochoa was recently elected student body president, the first Mexican American to serve that role at The University of Texas at Austin.
His success isn’t limited to extracurricular activities. Although Ochoa has only been at the University for three years, he is already classified as a senior by hours. By 2007, he will have graduated from the Business Honors Program and the Professional Program in Accounting with an additional degree in economics.
Ochoa made it his mission to get involved in student organizations from the second he stepped on campus. As a freshman, Ochoa started out as the student liaison for the Latino Leadership Council.
For Ochoa, serving on the council opened up several opportunities, including speaking at forums on diversity. Because of his efforts in his first year, Ochoa won the freshman President’s Leadership Award, an endowment created in 1985 from past president Frank Denius.
“My first year was a big introduction to people like Derrick Reed who helped me on campus and in my student government campaign,” Ochoa said. “My age was probably the greatest challenge. It’s hard to trust a freshman with big projects, but I was fortunate to have people who trusted me.”
In addition to his position on the council, Ochoa attributes much of his success to his education at McCombs.
“The support that I’ve always gotten here, especially in BHP, has helped a lot,” Ochoa said. “The teamwork and group projects have taught me about leadership. The goals of McCombs have aligned well with my own and have served me well in business, student government and everything else.”
Ochoa expected nothing less of the school. His decision to attend McCombs was based on the school’s high standards and rigorous programs.
“I had been a part of LEAD the summer before my senior year,” he said. “In this program, high school students go through a ‘business camp’ where they learn about business basics while staying at the University for a couple of weeks. That experience did a lot to convince me of the quality of the McCombs School. In addition to that, the prestige of the PPA program attracted me as well.”
Jay Koehler, a professor of management science and information systems, says that Ochoa has been a great addition to the McCombs student body.
“Omar was a terrific STA 309H student,” said Koehler. “He earned a solid A in this tough class and was a key player in a group project that used the famous prisoner’s dilemma paradigm to test whether the gender of a person’s opponent affects the way that person plays the game.”
With his growing leadership experiences and achievements, Ochoa was elected the two-year-at-large representative in the student government in 2004 and student body president in 2005.
“It wasn’t an easy decision to run for president,” Ochoa said. “I talked to a lot of people before deciding to run. In the end, I noticed the failure in communication between student government and the student body. The more aware the students are, the more likely they are to jump in and get involved. That’s where I thought I could be the biggest help.”
In addition to making sure that the student government has a presence on campus, two of Ochoa’s main goals include improving the cost of student life and working to keep student input on the forefront of policy.
Ochoa’s aim to improve the cost of student life is directly a result of his experiences in his hometown in the Rio Grande Valley.
Committed to making his vision a reality, Ochoa plans to take the $3,000 stipend that he gets from the University and give it back to the students. The money may be divided into three scholarships for incoming students.
“Being from the Rio Grande Valley, I saw a lot of people who could have been successful at UT but couldn’t afford it,” he said. “I want to make education here more affordable, which is why I support tuition stabilization policies, tax free textbooks and discount programs at local businesses.”
After graduation, and possibly after law school, Ochoa plans on returning to the Rio Grande Valley. His ultimate goal is to be an entrepreneur that facilitates relationships between Mexican and American companies. According to Ochoa, the Valley is on the cusp of a lot of growth, but unemployment is still a problem.
With the skills he gained at The University of Texas at Austin, Ochoa hopes to provide more jobs for people in that region.
“Business students are some of the most involved on campus,” Ochoa said. “They have tenacity and ambition. The business school fosters a lot of leadership, not just at Texas but in Texas.”
Ochoa is a true testament to that.
For information on specific programs at the McCombs School, consult our contacts page. For media information, contact the Communications Director by phone at 512-471-3314 or by email at CommunicationsDirector@mccombs.utexas.edu.
