Mays Impacts

Mays Business School’s Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance program was ranked fourth in College Choice‘s 2016 ranking of Best Bachelor’s in Finance Degree Programs. The ranking was based on cost of attendance and salary upon graduation.

Data was gathered from individual school websites, other rankings sites, and the U.S. News and World Report site.

Senior Mariah Smiley’s nonprofit is more than an extracurricular; it’s a labor of love.

Her organization, called Drops of Love, raises awareness of the scarcity of clean water throughout the world and has sponsored the construction of clean water wells in four villages in El Salvador, Nicaragua and India. Donors are encouraged to give with a guarantee: one dollar provides clean water to one person for one whole year.

“We believe that every single person in this world should have access to clean water. Period,” said Smiley, a management information systems major who serves as president of the organization. “Every single person involved is here because they love the people we’re able to help. 100% of our donations go towards drilling the wells. We pay expenses out of pocket so that every cent can go to help these people that so desperately need something we take for granted in the United States.”

Each well costs $5,000 on average. Builders are sponsored to construct the wells between $1,200 and $2,000, depending on the region and time of year. The wells typically last for years, usually servicing 250-500 people, but one village had as few as eight families.

But when it comes to impact, Smiley believes the size of the village isn’t important. “Bigger organizations often overlook the smaller villages so that they can ‘do more good elsewhere.’ This is true but then who does good in the smaller, less populated villages?”

Her eyes were opened to the water scarcity crisis during a poignant conversation she had with her parents when she was 14. They had returned from a charity fundraiser and explained to Smiley how people frequently died from diseases they contracted through unsafe drinking water. She learned that the good news was that disease was preventable and it didn’t cost much to help – even one dollar could provide one person clean water for an entire year. Smiley recalled thinking: “If I could find a dollar as a 14-year-old, I knew others could too.”

She decided to do her part by forming Drops of Love. Then, at 17, she and her brother registered Drops of Love as an official non-profit and she took the helm as president.

Four years later, Smiley envisions a network of Water Ambassadors associated with Drops of Love who can sponsor their own wells by hosting fundraisers in their own communities. “We see Drops of Love as a vehicle for others who want to help but don’t know how to get started,” she said.

She hopes others can see just how much they are capable of creating an impact. “Everyone has a sphere of influence that they can inspire to change the world. With Drops of Love, we want to provide these leaders with the tools to get out there and make a difference.”

Ten Mays Business School students were given the MBA Scholar Award Dec. 1 – a new award designed to honor 4.0 graduates from the MBA programs. The celebration at CityCentre Houston was attended by Mays Dean Eli Jones, Associate Dean for Graduate Programs Arvind Mahajan and Assistant Dean for Graduate Programs Michael Kinney celebrated with the Executive MBA and Professional MBA Program Class of 2016 graduates.

Scholars enrolled in the Executive MBA Program were Rajee Hari and Santiago Velasquez. Scholars in the Professional MBA Program were Kenza Bouzaher, Brad Burgess, Lane Cooper, John Doolin, Shelly Fuhrman, Ashley Gibson, Tyler Stegeman and Paul Urane.

The idea for the award came from Bala Shetty, who previously was Interim Associate Dean for Graduate Programs.

MBA Scholar Award winner Brad Burgess said afterward, “The program has done so much for me and opened up many new opportunities. I look forward to helping this program grow and prosper in the future.”

To view photos of the Class of 2016 Scholars Awards Dinner visit https://www.flickr.com/photos/maysbusinessschool/sets/72157677407413586/

Leonard Berry, a marketing professor at Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School, has stepped up his research of cancer care to encompass those closest to the cancer patients – the caregivers. Most often, the caregivers are family members, and are not professionals at caring for patients.

His paper, “Supporting the Supporters: What Family Caregivers Need to Care for a Loved One With Cancer,” is online and will be in the January print issue of Journal of Oncology Practice. The journal is one of the two journals published by the American Society of Clinical Oncology. It is widely read in the oncology community.

“It is an article that I am especially proud of because it addresses a real need to better prepare and support the family caregivers of cancer patients in their caregiving roles,” Berry said. “This is a group that is often overlooked, even though the caregiver is an extension of the medical team.”

Berry’s co-authors are Shraddha Mahesh Dalwadi, who earned her MBA from Mays and is a fourth-year medical student at Texas A&M; and Dr. Joseph O. Jacobson of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School.

The researchers propose a four-part framework for supporting family caregivers:

– Assess caregivers’ needs using formal measures, just as the cancer patient’s own needs are assessed;

– Educate caregivers for their caregiving roles, most notably, with training in the low-level medical support that cancer patients require at home;

– Empower caregivers to become full-fledged members of the patient’s cancer team, all working toward common goals;

– Assist caregivers proactively in their duties, so that they retain a sense of control and self-efficacy rather than having to react to imminent medical crises without sufficient resources at their disposal.

An estimated 4.6 million people in the United States care for someone with cancer at home. Too often, these caregivers—spouses, other family members, or friends—are poorly prepared for this vital but demanding role that takes a toll on them and, by extension, the patient. Only one-third of all caregivers report being asked by a health-care provider what they need to care for the patient; even fewer are asked what they need to care for themselves. That lack of preparation can worsen the anxiety that caregivers already feel about a loved one’s health.

An at-home caregiver typically provides the patient with cancer with at least four types of assistance: daily living activities, medical care, social support and advocacy.

The psychological burden may be even greater for family caregivers than for the patient, especially as the disease advances, and greater for female than for male caregivers. Stress is particularly heavy if caregivers feel ill-prepared: a sense of low self-efficacy heightens the perceived burden, so it is important to develop self-confidence for the caregiving role.

Berry is University Distinguished Professor of Marketing, Regents Professor, and holds the M.B. Zale Chair in Retailing and Marketing Leadership in the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University. He also is a Presidential Professor for Teaching Excellence.

His research has focused on service, particularly in health care, and in recent years more specifically on cancer care.

“I became interested in studying service improvement in cancer care because we are making more progress on clinical care than service care, and when cancer strikes, patients and their families need both,” Berry said. “I am able to leverage my career background as a services researcher and the past 15 years intensively studying healthcare to contribute to our thinking about trying to ease the path for cancer patients and their families.”

As a visiting scientist at Mayo Clinic in 2001-2002, he conducted an in-depth research study of healthcare service, the basis for his book, Management Lessons from Mayo Clinic (2008).  He also has conducted and published field research at Gundersen Health, ThedaCare and Bellin Health, three high-performance health systems in Wisconsin. Concurrent with his faculty position in Mays Business School, Berry is a senior fellow of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement studying service improvement in cancer care for patients and their families.

Berry has written 10 books in all, including Discovering the Soul of Service; On Great Service; Marketing Services: Competing Through Quality; and Delivering Quality Service. He is the author of numerous academic articles and an invited lecturer throughout the world.

Happy New Year! Texas A&M’s Mays Business School recently marked or will celebrate several milestones of many of its signature programs in 2017. Here are just a few:

In 1966, over 50 years ago,  the Full-Time MBA program was initiated at Texas A&M University. It is now an 18-month program for young professionals. The Mays MBA programs were expanded in 2012, five years ago, when the Professional MBA program was added to the school’s offerings. The program moved with the Executive MBA program to CityCentre Houston, a mixed-use urban development off Interstate 10 and Beltway 8 in West Houston.

In 1972, 45 years ago, the business school awarded its first Ph.D. The Mays Ph.D. program is currently ranked 8th U.S. public and 13th overall in the U.S. by Financial Times 2015.

In 1992, 25 years ago, the school began recognizing the best of the best of Mays with an annual Outstanding Alumni Award. To date, 79 former students have been recognized with this honor.

In 2008, 10 years ago, Mays joined seven other universities in the EBV Consortium, dedicated to developing veterans in entrepreneurship through the Entrepreneurial Bootcamp for Veterans. Now part of a consortium that includes 10 additional universities across the nation, Texas A&M University continues to offer free training and one-on-one mentoring.

One year ago, in 2016, Mays launched its MS Business program for students who have received non-business bachelor’s degrees and have little or no professional work experience.   The inaugural class class of 41 students represents a wide range of disciplines.

These milestones are just a few examples of Mays Business School’s vision and mission to advance the world’s prosperity by creating impactful knowledge and developing transformational leaders. Share your favorite 2017 milestone with us by tweeting @MaysBusiness.