Sophomore year, I made the decision to pursue a degree in business. My goal: get into UT’s McCombs School of Business. Now, in order to get there, I needed to gain a little more experience within the world of business. As a first step, I enrolled in two business classes my sophomore year: Business management, and Business Information Management. While I walked away with several certifications, the content in these classes hardly provided enough stimulation. I wanted to learn more about specific business concepts, to hopefully narrow down my field of interest. That was where the McCombs Future Executive Academy (MFEA) came into play, offering me a chance to experience the various pathways that a degree in business would provide.
This past summer I attended MFEA at the University of Texas at Austin. This camp was a free, week-long program, offered to rising juniors and seniors with the intent of fostering leadership abilities within high school students.
I decided to apply to this program to gain more experience with business as well as experience what life as a business major at McCombs would potentially be like. The application itself consisted of an essay; transcript submission; explanation of high school extracurricular activities, work experience, and service; and one teacher recommendation letter. I only decided to apply last minute because the year prior I had been rejected from the program, however, much to my surprise, I received an acceptance email mid April.
The camp began on June 2, and lasted until June 8. Camp attendees came from all over Texas, and several even flew into the program. We stayed in the San Jacinto dorms on campus, which were surprisingly nice.
Our first day we checked into our rooms before heading to an informational meeting with our parents. Next, the camp directors sorted us into our designated groups for the week. Within our teams we engaged in several group bonding activities, including a balloon stacking competition (which we lost dramatically), and song association (which we also lost). That night we took a quick Target run, before reconvening for catered Pluckers dinner. Honestly, the first day was kind of a blur. I met a lot of new people and heard a lot of interesting stories. I met one girl who drove several hours to school each morning and another who was third in her class of over 1,500 people. I met students who operated their own businesses, sold clothes on Depop, and had held District Level positions for DECA. That night I did something I don’t normally do – I went for a run. Before heading back to our dorms for the night, the majority of campers headed to the Gregory gym to enjoy a bit of free time. The small group of friends I had formed at dinner reconvened on the upper level of the gym, where we walked, ran, and engaged in a few rounds of cards. Ultimately, this was the best chance I had for bonding with my camp-mates, and that group stuck with me throughout the rest of camp.
The first few full days of camp consisted mainly of business lectures and various other activities. We had the chance to talk with various McCombs alumni, learning more about UT, why they chose to attend, and receiving advice on the college application process. We were also presented on topics such as marketing, management information systems, entrepreneurship, and finance. These lessons allowed me to learn more about business topics that I otherwise wouldn’t have explored. Because of these lectures, I discovered my interest in the field of sustainable business, which focuses on limiting the negative impact of business practices on society and the environment. Additionally, these lectures confirmed my decision to pursue a major in finance. Speakers such as Professor David Miller exposed me to the various careers within the world of finance, opening me up to the potential for a career in consulting. The most impactful lesson was one offered by Ram Kolluri, whose presentation on financial literacy offered me insight into investing and financial planning that most teens do not have access to.
After the first half of the week, the focus of the camp shifted toward applying the skills we had learned to create a case study comparing the corporate social responsibility (business efforts to aid society and the environment) practices of Phillips 66 and Boeing. We had two days to conduct a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis on both companies, before determining which practiced corporate social responsibility to a greater extent and offering solutions for how they could improve. My team spent the first day and a half completing the actual presentation, and the last half of the final day practicing our presentation. Because we had such a short time frame to prepare, our team worked late into the night running our performance over and over again. The day of the competition, we woke up early and even skipped breakfast in order to get a final few rounds of practice in. When it came time to actually present, we had 15 minutes to present and five minutes to answer questions from the judges. The time frame was quite small, and we had to cut down a decent portion of the project. We presented in front of several professors who acted as judges, other campers, our counselors, and the camp directors. It was a little bit intimidating presenting something that we had rushed so much to create, however, my group did well with only a few hiccups. I think the competition also helped reduce my fear of public speaking, as I had to answer the judges’ questions on the spot, which was good practice for on-the-spot thinking. Although my team didn’t place in the top three, I am still proud of what we accomplished in such a short time.
As for the more fun aspects of camp, McCombs made it a priority that we enjoyed ourselves over the week that we lived there. They took us to blazer tag, bowling, the UT CO-OP, the UT gym, and even a tour of the campus. The less enjoyable aspects of the camp included an ant infestation in several of our rooms (found in our beds), showers that took 15 minutes to heat up, and a cockroach problem on campus. Regardless, it was an overall positive experience that pushed me out of my comfort zone. From sharing a dorm room, to sleepless nights, to cafeteria food, to experiencing college-like lectures, I feel more prepared to graduate and move on from my suburban bubble.
