Posted on March 16, 2023 by Rebekah Alegria
Meet Daniel Loeza, a MBA graduate student at the Carlos Alvarez College of Business!
Expected Graduation: 2023
Favorite class, professor or topic you’ve learned about this year?
Almost instinctually, my response would want to be a class I had the most fun in or the one that content came naturally to me materializing into an easy A. But when I take a minute to really think back, the answer most fitting would be my Organizational Behavior and Management course. This course challenged my peers and me to take a profound look at our San Antonio community and create a fundraising event through our skills and knowledge acquired through our time at UTSA.
The project at hand allowed me to bring community members together to support Madonna Center Inc., a non-profit organization located in the heart of West San Antonio. I had the pleasure of serving their Senior Citizens community with a Loteria Breakfast, all thanks to the generous donations of The McCombs Foundation, San Antonio Botanical Gardens, Panifico and 480 Hair Salon. Nothing comes close to the feeling of serving an underrepresented, and often neglected, community. These types of experiences are the ones that make an academic journey such as my own worth more than any grade.
What hobbies or interests do you have outside of school?
Between a full-time job and a part-time school schedule, it’s hard to fit in any extracurriculars. Even with my tight schedule, the one thing I make sure to not go without is my workout routine. So, on any given day, my additional time outside of work and school, I can be found doing hot yoga (106°F hot to be exact) and other strengthening workouts. Health is wealth!
What is the most memorable experience you have had at UTSA?
A very memorable experience for me was being selected to represent UTSA at the 2022 Prospanica National Conference & Career Expo in New Orleans, Louisiana. This was my first time visiting NOLA and getting a chance to attend a conference sponsored by the university. This opportunity provided me with reflection and the realization that the scope of my possibilities was wider than the narrow horizon I had originally painted for myself. Learning from seasoned professionals and varying industries changed the trajectory of my future career goals. Having the opportunity to meet other like-minded individuals who have helped pave the way provided me with the wisdom to make great impacts in my journey ahead.
What challenges have you faced in your academic journey and how did you overcome them?
We all had to live through the pandemic–we suffered through it, and we continue to feel the residual effects that have taken a toll on so many worldwide. While that year is lamentable, I now realize the significant gains. During that time, I became inundated with knowledge that has now allowed me to successfully train and onboard members to our team and become a project subject matter expert. When my first semester in the MBA program began to feel like a mistake (managing a pandemic, full-time career, and school happening all remotely), I realized that because of that experience, my emotional endurance has reached a new height. Year three into the MBA program, and I find myself being able to implement new skills and knowledge into the real world, building relationships with VPs in the company and making a name for myself.
We think we don’t see what occurs around us, I think we choose not to in order to maintain whatever sanity we have left. Because of that, we rob ourselves of the chance to witness our growth, strength and endurance. I know now that I’m not who I previously was. Now a more refined version of myself, now realizing that what I thought was time lost, was silent growth.
What do you hope to achieve in your future career?
My future career looks different now than it did a year ago. After exposure to different career fields, I have my sights set on working for a government agency. Through experience and wisdom gained in my future career, I hope to serve as a board member for Madonna Center Inc., a place I hold dear to my heart.
Ultimately though, I can have my sights set on anything and nothing means more to me than making my family proud and that’s exactly who I do this for. So, I can dream of all the merits, promotions, high salaries and more for my career, but without my family it’s meaningless.
— Rebekah Alegria
