Originally published January 25, 2016
By Leonard Martinez
UTEP Communications
UTEP students from the Corporate Engagement Project gained real world experience recently when they gave a special presentation to University Medical Center (UMC) executive personnel.
The Corporate Engagement Project (CEP) team – a group of six Master of Business Administration students working with CEP Director Bill Conwell – was tasked by UMC at the beginning of the fall semester to conduct a multi-faceted impact analysis of providing medical services to El Paso County jail inmates.
The project provides the opportunity to learn from an activity that has an expected outcome in a defined time frame.
“Through CEP, students are able to refine their organizational and personal skills while in a professional business environment,” Conwell said. “The program’s exposure also provides students the opportunity to strengthen their resume, build or establish their professional network and the chance to be evaluated for future employment opportunities.”
Once the class of six was given the project, they were split into two groups – one handling accreditations and the other in charge of benchmarking.
Alejandra Gomez, a full-time graduate student, was a member of the accreditations team.
“We focused our cross-referencing to rules related to inmate medical health care in order to assist UMC in getting an idea of what rules they would have to follow as a potential medical provider, as well as any accreditation requirements they would need,” Gomez said.
CEP worked closely with UMC throughout the project and UMC officials made themselves available to the students as much as possible. There were some challenges that had to be overcome.
“As in any project with a corporation, time constraints were a challenge that we encountered. We were not always able to meet with UMC (officials) … We were prepared for this and were able to manage for the most part. Another challenge that the benchmarking team encountered was low response rates in a survey they conducted. However, this was also something we expected and were able to overcome,” Gomez said.
Making the final 45-minute presentation to UMC’s leadership on Dec. 14, 2015 was another important experience for the CEP team.
“Presenting to the UMC board and most executives was very nerve-wracking,” Gomez said. “For most of us, this was the first time presenting anything to such an important group of people, which of course made us all nervous. However, we prepared our material and rehearsed thoroughly prior to the presentation.
We were also very fortunate to have the guidance of our instructor Mr. Bill Conwell, who not only prepared us for this but also encouraged us all the way. UMC was very supportive of our project and were happy with our mid-project presentation, which gave us confidence for the final one.”
Another team member, Priscila Carbajal, said the team rehearsed their presentation 10 times.
“It was a true honor for us to have that kind of audience and know that we were a trusted source for information, and to see at the end how they valued all the work we did,” Carbajal said.
Graduate student Kayla Riede called the project a great experience.
“Usually class work is completed for a grade for yourself,” Riede said. “This was unique because our work did reflect our grade for the class, but the work was more meaningful since it would make a difference to UMC on how to proceed with the proposal.”
After giving the presentation, the team answered questions from the UMC leadership.
The students also gave UMC a written report that addressed the project process and expected deliverables.
Feedback from UMC regarding the overall project and presentation was very positive. Comments included: “Excellent program, well organized,” “Project delivery complete,” and “Exceeded my expectations.”
“I think the CEP project provided me with valuable hands-on experience that you do not usually get in a regular classroom setting,” Gomez said. “In addition, it gave us exposure to real-life professional situations, including working with a team, reaching out to people for help, building professional networks, working under time constraints, working with limited information, etc.”
To date, 14 business enterprises and 56 MBA students have partnered for the successful completion of 19 distinct Corporate Engagement Projects.
The student team members for the UMC project were:
Priscila Carbajal, MBA ‘16
Sergio Carrillo Jr., MBA ‘16
Alejandra Gomez, MBA ‘16
Aimee Olivas, MBA ‘16
Kayla Riede, MBA ‘16
Elena Romero, MBA ‘16