Posted on May 10, 2013 by Wendy Frost
When international business major Linda Campos crosses the stage at the Alamodome next week she will truly be one of a kind. She’ll be the only student graduating with a bilingual business certificate in the College of Business.
Linda Campos pictured wearing graduation stole
The college’s bilingual business certificate program in Spanish was created to prepare business students with the language and cultural skills necessary for successful international business careers. The certificate values and professionalizes the Spanish-language skills many students acquired in their homes. By assuring professional business vocabulary and fluency, students can turn their language skills into a highly-valued asset in the job market.
Campos did just that when she secured a position with JPMorgan Chase upon graduation. She will be a team manager in their Regional Operations Center overseeing a staff of 20 individuals in the bilingual commercial and consumer accounts division. As part of her lengthy interview process, she was required to both speak and translate business documents in Spanish.
“Participating in the bilingual business certificate program gave me a huge advantage,” said Campos, a native of Mission, TX. “I learned how to write and explain complex business processes in Spanish. When I recently worked with students from Monterrey Tech in Mexico, they complimented me on the professionalism of my Spanish.”
The certificate requires 15 credit hours including three business subject courses taught in Spanish, one comparative international business course and a practical experience such as an immersion program, study abroad or Spanish-language internship.
As part of the certificate program Campos completed an internship with the Free Trade Alliance during which she wrote a business plan that required communicating with international consulates. Most recently Campos leveraged her experience at the Free Trade Alliance into a first-place finish in their undergraduate international business plan competition.
Students from 23 countries and 30 universities participated in the competition that was created to help students develop their international business skills and compete and collaborate globally. Campos’ team included UTSA accounting undergraduate Monica Fiol, Yishu Zhuo, a Hong Kong exchange student whom she befriended at UTSA in the fall and two friends from St. Mary’s University.
Working with their mentors at Rackspace, the team developed a business strategy for expanding Rackspace’s cloud computing products into Brazil. “I learned a lot from the competition,” said Campos, who was also a member of the college’s Business Scholars Program, a mentoring program for first-generation college students. “Relationships are vital in business, and networking is extremely valuable. My connections in the business community helped me succeed in the competition.”
Leveraging her international experiences, Campos dreams of opening an international consulting firm. “I fell in love with UTSA during my time here, but I’m looking forward to the next challenge in my life.”
Nearly 1,000 business graduates will participate in UTSA’s spring commencement on Monday, May 13 in the Alamodome. The ceremony for business graduates will begin at 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. UTSA commencement ceremonies will be telecast live on AT&T U-verse channel 99, Grande Cable channel 21 and Time Warner Cable channel 98 and on the UTSA Information Technology website.
Please send your comments to: wendy.frost@utsa.edu
— Wendy Frost
