Bauer Gives Back: Making a Big Impact
Bauer College’s Hispanic Business Student Association Focuses on Outreach Efforts in the Community
Published on December 9, 2013
The Hispanic Business Student Association (HBSA) at the C. T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston hosts many outreach programs throughout the semester to promote business leadership skills and to give back to the community. Pictured, representatives from the organization during a recent Habitat for Humanity event.
Editor’s note: This story is part of a series called “Bauer Gives Back,” which will run through the rest of the Fall 2013 semester. Bauer Gives Back highlights volunteer activities and charitable efforts of students, staff, faculty and alumni of the college.
The C. T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston’s student organizations take every opportunity to serve the Houston community, from working on Houston hunger initiatives to offering business-oriented workshops for community members. One group has gone above and beyond, making outreach the main part of its mission.
The Bauer Hispanic Business Student Association (HBSA), and its 150 students, focus on a variety of core objectives, including voicing the concerns of Hispanic business students and alumni and promoting business leadership skills and entrepreneurship. By looking at their schedule, outreach is one of the organization’s most important goals.
“For HBSA, one of our main concerns is finding new ways to give back to the community through various programs and organizations,” HBSA President Genaro Martinez said. “As one of the largest organizations within Bauer, we feel that it allows for us to make an even bigger impact.”
Two representatives from the Hispanic Business Student Association volunteer time at the Houston Food Bank.
HBSA’s most successful events of the year were Future Cougar Day and Youth Outreach Day, which introduced about 700 middle school and high school students to Bauer College. Both outreach events offer students a look into college life and how to navigate scholarships, admissions and choosing a major.
“Both of these events begin with a motivational guest speaker who gives a speech to the students about their experience in college and how they found a way to overcome adversity and become successful,” Martinez said. “This allows them to find a connection to a professional that has been through it all, or that might have gone through the same situation some students might be going through now.”
For high school students, the event offers a chance at one of the 20 scholarships HBSA awards each year. The scholarship is $300 and students are paired with an HBSA member to guide them through their first year of college.
“Many of our members are either first generation college students or they grew up with no one to show them the right path to success, so they know what it is like to grow up without any guidance,” Martinez added.