Leadership Program student Katie Koehler teaches students in Belize. Photo by Tam Le.

While most students booked their flights or prepared for road trips to popular spring break destinations like South Padre Beach, Texas, or Panama City, Fla., 19 students from McCombs were preparing for a completely different kind of spring break--a week-long global business service learning trip in Belize.

The trip is part of the Leadership Program, a McCombs organization that currently has about 260 members, and can best be described as a co-curricular experience sponsored by the Undergraduate Program Office. It’s a flexible, four-year program that aims to create “engaged global citizens" and focuses on a different aspect of leadership each year: individual, organizational, community and global.

Hook 'em! Photo by Tam Le.The members participate in a variety of leadership development activities on their own, whether they serve in leadership positions in organizations, take an extra course on ethics or leadership, attend retreats, conferences or write book reviews.

“[Belize] is a student initiative,” said Stephanie Hinojosa-Galvan, program coordinator. “We have helped them, but the students have planned the curriculum and will be providing the services.”

The students taught entrepreneurial and job skills tracks to vocational students at the Belizean college ITVET. The entrepreneurial track covered general business skills such as budgeting, forecasting, putting business plans together, attracting investors and targeting appropriate audiences. The job skills track taught resume, cover letter and thank you letter writing, professional dress, how to conduct yourself during an interview and conduct mock interviews. 

“We believe we can really make an impact on the Belizean community and their economy,” said Justin Turner, BBA ’11, who is studying management information systems and is one of the four project champions that coordinated the curriculum to teach the vocational students in Belize. He is a member of the 2007 cohort and has experienced the full four years of the program.

“Belize is a really great way to cap off our senior year,” said Turner. “It’s going to show us how we can use our leadership skills and education acquired at UT to benefit the global community.”

Belize was chosen due to the lack of a language barrier (English is the official language in there) and its status as a third world country.

“I decided to go because I think this cause is really important,” said Tam Le, BBA ’11, studying marketing, and also in the 2007 cohort. “We have the opportunity to improve the economy of Belize and change people’s lives.”

Fourth-year members in the program, like Le and Turner, learn about global leadership and are challenged to become ethical global citizens.

“As college students we aspire to do big things in the world, that’s the reason we choose to attend McCombs--one of the top business schools in the nation every year,” said Turner. “We want to have a global impact on the world.”

Le also sees the importance in having a global impact on the world: “I’m interested in the global track because I feel like that’s where our economy and companies are heading. The world is becoming more global and connected, and those skills are going to be the ones that are really important in the future.”

During the last year the students have attended at least three workshops with guest speakers, including one led by Gary Hoover, former entrepreneur-in-residence. During the workshops they have learned what the Belizean society is like, how to dress and the best ways to interact with people there. 

“We really feel like we know their culture, attitudes and beliefs,” said Turner. “We know how to present our leadership skills to better benefit them after going through these four years of leadership training.”

For instance, the leadership program students learned that Belizeans read very literally.

“We fall asleep when professors write down everything they’re going to say in lecture on a PowerPoint,” said Le, who taught the job skills track. “But in Belize, they like things to be explicit and stated out.”

Leadership Program students tour a local sugar factory.

“This will be a project that not only changes the lives of the people we’re working with,” said Turner. “But it will also create lasting memories for us, and gratification knowing that we helped out students abroad.”

“The most important lesson I’ve seen emphasized throughout all four years, is that leadership is not an ability you either have or don’t have,” said Le. “It’s a skill that you work on--it’s something anyone can improve on.”

Turner agrees: “A lot of people have this misconception that leadership is something you’re born into. That’s not the case--you have to realize that every person has a unique set of skills and leadership traits. Anybody can be a leader.”

During the trip, the students also received a visit from John Briceño, BBA '85, who is the leader of the opposition political party in Belize, the People's United Party.

More highlights from Justin Turner, who blogged during the trip:

• On Day 2 the LP students arrived at the city of Lamanai and a tour guide showed them several Mayan temples before they met their Belizian students.
• On Day 3 the job skills group created a mock resume in front of the students. They felt walking them through the creation process was the most effective way to learn. That night, when discussing the highs and lows, the only low the group could come up with is that they wished they had more time with the Belizean students.
• On Day 4 the group assisted the students with the drafts of their business plans to be presented to The Belize Youth Business Trust, and visited the largest business in all of Belize: a sugar cane factory.
• On Day 5 the group had become so close with the Belizean students that they offered to take them fishing along the banks of a river, where they taught them some of the Creole language they speak.
• Read more from Justin's blog here.

And from Colby Lowrey, who also blogged during the trip:

• The group took a wildlife boat tour on their first day in Belize- monkeys jumped into their boat and the students fed them bananas.
• On Day 2 students met with speakers from the local junior college and learned that the biggest education issue in Belize is that there is no accreditation system and no commonality of courses throughout the country. Courses that the Belizean students take are not transferable and the certifications students do receive aren’t recognized outside of Belize.
• On Day 4 two boys, Luis and Elmer, walked all the way from the group’s campus to the hotel to tell the LP students goodbye. The previous day they gained enough courage to complete a business plan and present it. 
• Read more from Colby's blog here.