Two students among the nearly 60 Mays Mitte scholars and fellows were named in May to the Roy F. and Joann Cole Mitte Foundation Circle of Excellence. Senior finance major John Huffman and MBA student and Mitte fellow William White, a licensed chemical engineer, are the 2005 winners of the Mitte Circle of Excellence Award.

The Mitte Foundation is one of the top scholarship programs for business schools in the United States. Created by Roy and Joann Mitte, the foundation recognizes and rewards students who exemplify outstanding leadership, academic achievement, citizenship and community involvement.

Huffman is one of Texas A&M’s nominees for the Rhodes Scholarship and serves on numerous student advisory boards, working with the Business Honors Society, the Mitte Society and MSC Hospitality.

White worked for 13 years as a chemical engineer in the power and environmental industries before returning to academia for his MBA. He has tutored students at Bryan High School in algebra, trigonometry and calculus and works closely with English-as-a-second-language students.

Addressing Mitte Foundation Executive Director Cheryl Nolting, White thanked the Mittes for the financial support and volunteerism incentives that helped him find a role in Bryan-College Station as he studied for his MBA. “The Mitte Foundation showed me that I have a place in the community and what some of those opportunities are,” White said. “And that is priceless.”

Regents’ Professor of Marketing Dan Robertson was honored in a retirement reception this spring in advance of his planned August departure from Mays. As part of the accolades to commemorate his 24-year career at Texas A&M, the Outstanding MBA Faculty Award was renamed in Robertson’s honor — a gift sponsored by $2,500 in donations from fellow marketing professors.

Robertson joined the business school in 1981 as head of the marketing department, and was assistant and later associate dean in the 1980s. The influential educator, a passionate Aggie fan and a story-teller at heart, shepherded students and ideas through the MBA program, the six areas of study towards a master’s degree and the entire undergraduate program during his years as associate dean. He was director of all graduate programs for Texas A&M for six years beginning in 1992. From 2000 to 2003, Robertson again directed the MBA program, in mid-2003 joining A&M’s Office of Graduate Studies as assistant dean.

Friends and former students are invited to honor Dan by supporting the Dan H. Robertson Outstanding MBA Faculty Award. Cash gifts of any amount are welcome to help fund the award, given annually to recognize and enhance the efforts of a noted MBA faculty member. For more information and to donate, contact David Hicks, director of development, at 979-845-2904 or david.hicks@tamu.edu.

Their business plans were sensible, yet fun. Seven teams of the state’s top high school students put their newfound business comprehension to work at Mays in June, cooking up plans from dessert fondue locales to espresso-laced cookie delivery and energy drinks ideal for all-night studying.

Combining lessons on marketing, finance, accounting and general business leadership, 37 participants of the fifth annual Business Career Awareness Program (BCAP) prepared commercials and researched College Station competitors to their mock businesses as they got to know what being an Aggie business student is all about.

Sponsored by Ernst &Young, the awareness program gives underrepresented high school students a week to explore opportunities at Mays by living on campus, attending scaled-down business classes and designing their own business plans. The week also introduces high school seniors to Texas A&M in general: more than 50 students in recent years decided to attend A&M after their weeklong immersion at Mays.

“I’d never thought of this as a place for me before,” said Kiah Craig, a student at Cathedral Christian Academy in Arlington and a 2005 BCAP participant. “I’m definitely applying to A&M now.”

The program also connects potential students to a network of Mays mentors — some of whom went through the program themselves — in the cadre of BCAP counselors.

“I had lived here all my life, but hadn’t really tasted Aggie life,” said Jason Rodriguez, a junior accounting major from College Station and 2002 BCAP participant who returned this year as a camp counselor. “It’s really a showcase of our traditions and integrity, and for probably the first time it lets these students see the prestige of this business school. It’s why I came here, and I hope it might be why they also come.”

Mays alum Lupe Fraga ’57, president and CEO of Houston-based Tejas Office Supplies, was sworn in as one of the newest members of the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents in May.

The accounting graduate, also a 2003 Mays Outstanding Alumni Award winner, will serve until 2011. He and former A&M coach Gene Stallings ’57 joined the board during its May meeting on campus.

The son of Mexican immigrants, Fraga attended Texas A&M on a baseball scholarship. He joined the Army, spending three years in France as a lieutenant before returning to Houston in the 1960s to purchase a small office supply company. Tejas Office Supplies is now one of Houston’s largest minority-owned businesses, recording $13 million in annual revenues.

Fraga, recently named Hispanic Business Man of the Year for the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s Region III, also serves as board chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’ Houston Branch.

Barbara and Ralph Cox ’53 have committed $100,000 to establish a learning endowment in support of faculty, students, facilities and technology at Mays Business School. Their gift creates the Barbara and Ralph Cox ’53 Learning Endowment.

“Learning endowments provide the seed capital to our faculty and students for new ideas and learning experiences,” said Dean Jerry Strawser. “The Coxes’ generous gift will allow our faculty to continue to create the unique learning experiences for students for which Mays Business School is known.”

The Coxes currently reside in Forth Worth. Ralph earned his bachelor’s in petroleum engineering and mechanical engineering from Texas A&M in 1954 and worked for 30 years at Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) before assuming the presidency of a Union Pacific resources company and later launching Greenhill Petroleum. Since 1995 he has worked as a petroleum consultant for domestic and international clients. Barbara graduated from Southern Methodist University and taught physical education.

Ralph is a member of numerous boards of directors and advisors, including the Texas A&M University System Chancellor’s Century Council, the Texas A&M President’s Council of Advisors, the Texas A&M Foundation Legacy Society, the Mays Business School Dean’s Development Council and the board of advisors at the Look College of Engineering. The couple has also given extensively to support A&M scholarships and educational efforts. They have two married daughters and three grandchildren.