Jessica Chavez
COB Degree Earned: Bachelors in Business Administration in Spring 2021
Current Career: Senior HR Generalist
What drew you to the business industry?
Growing up as a child of Mexican immigrants in the small town of Lonoke, AR was a unique experience on its own. As I watched my parents take manual labor jobs, I knew from an early age that my career simply couldn’t end after high school. My ambitions were further fueled after learning that they had given up their careers in Mexico to provide me with a better education here. The inspiration they radiate to me is indescribable. I knew my passions would lead me to the right path and right school.
Watching them come home every day with the emotional toll of the prejudice and barriers they faced every day, it was devastating, to say the least. There were days when my mom would come home in tears from the comments made towards her because of her broken English. It made me wonder how I could become part of that change and how could I make an impact to those in the workplace, especially in labor-intensive jobs. It really fed this passion of being able to make the workplace a safer and more desirable place for everyone. [Read more…]
Michael Isaac, Senior Economics (Pre-Law track) major, Insurance and Risk management minor
Lilly “Izzy” Saettele, Senior Accounting major, Computer Info Systems minor
For the second year in a row, a UCA student team has competed in the business analytics competition at Manhattan College. Students in the CISA 4V71 Project Course began in February to analyze the dataset provided by the competition. After months of preparing, teams presented their results to a UCA committee in the form of a poster on May 1. Once the winning team was announced, they began preparing for competition against other university teams in New York City. 
Roeder visited campus for two days. At the luncheon on Monday, April 15, we were joined by many students, faculty, and insurance professionals, including Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Alan McClain, who spoke a few words to highlight the significance of the IRM industry in Arkansas.