Marketing senior Ashley Johns helps Grand Rapids resident Omar Cuevas, 17, write his resume on Oct. 23, 2015 at the Natural Sciences building. The Native American and Hispanic Business Students put on an event to help Hispanic students from the surrounding areas learn more about MSU, the college application process and presentation and resume skills.
—Native American and Hispanic Business Students is a club within the Eli Broad College of Business which works to increase the amount of Native American and Hispanic representation in corporate America though networking and community outreach.
Jon Wallace, second year president of NAHBS, said the primary goals of the club are family, community service and professional development their Native American and Hispanic members.
“The goals of this club are to introduce members in the business college at Michigan State University to these Fortune 500 companies,” Wallace said. “We want really want to increase the representation of Native Americans and Hispanic in corporate America. We also want want to increase Native American and Hispanic representation in higher education institutions.”
While the NAHBS is primarily for students of Native American or Hispanic descent, the club is not not limited to those student groups, and is also open for students of all majors.
“If you look at our membership on our executive board, not everyone is Native American or Hispanic,” Wallace said. “We’re open to anybody that is willing to learn about us and want to grow themselves professionally.”
“The skills are very transferable to every type of major,” Wallace said. “We want to give them the resources and the help and the knowledge to be able to pursue those opportunities whether they decide to come to MSU or not.”
Wallace said they offer a lot of networking opportunities for the students in the NAHBS club to learn about companies and learn through experience how to become more professional.
“Fortune 500 companies are brought in bi-weekly, which include Ernst (and) Young, General Motors and Pepsi,” Wallace said. “We bring in Fortune 500 companies to talk to our members about internship opportunities, full-time opportunities, what it’s like to work for their company, but more importantly real skills that they can have.”
One of the biggest events NAHBS sponsors is the Latino College Day. This year, about 60 young Hispanic students from Innovation Central and Wyoming High School came to MSU to learn what it is like to go to college.
Amirah Wells, the community service chair of NAHBS, said Latino College Day is intended to show students what resources they would have access to if they came to MSU.
“They learned about the summer business institute, resume building and presentation skills,” Wells said. “They get to see the campus. They get the opportunity to meet college students. We have a question and answer panel at the end of the day which gives them an opportunity to ask us anything they want.”
Wyoming High School student Cindy Ochoa said she was excited to take part in this years Latino College Day.
“I wanted to know what it took to get in MSU because I want to go into marketing,” Ochoa said. “I was able to network with Anne Samuel Crain, program coordinator of multicultural business programs. I was able to ask her a host of questions.”
Innovation Central student Omar Cuevas said he saw this as a wonderful opportunity to learn more about MSU and see what college life is all about.
“I came to gain knowledge, to learn about college life, and I came to visit the campus. I want to get familiar with the locations,” Cuevas said.
Those who are interested in joining NAHBS can email the club at the.nahbs@gmail.com for questions and membership applications. They are located on the fourth floor of the Eppley Center, and students can find information about upcoming NAHBS events there.
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