Making Awesome Happen

Bauer Student Leaders, Orgs Recognized at Annual Halliburton Awards Luncheon

Bauer College students and organizations were recognized in April at the Halliburton Leadership Awards Luncheon, a celebration of leadership and service. See more photos from this event at WhereAwesomeHappens.com.

The C. T. Bauer College of Business recognized outstanding student leaders and organizations during the 16th Annual Leadership & Awards Luncheon sponsored by Halliburton last week.

The luncheon was part of Halliburton Leadership Day, which began with a leadership training breakfast for undergraduate Bauer students in the General Business course (GENB), and was followed by the awards luncheon.

Halliburton Director of Talent Management Melissa Calhoun served as keynote speaker. She spoke on the importance of leadership in the business world and the current challenges companies face when it comes to building new leaders.

“The traditional pyramid-shaped leadership model that most companies have as their model is just not producing leaders fast enough to keep up with demands of business and with the pace of change that is happening,” Calhoun said. “That’s true across many companies, not unique to just oil and gas. There is a trend of a gap in leadership.”

Calhoun discussed the findings of recent studies that identify some of the most common leadership skills lacking in young professionals. Among these were coaching and feedback skills, skills in influencing, and skills in communicating and delegating effectively.

“People may come in with the undergraduate degree that’s provided the hard skills, but it’s really the soft skills that are often lacking and can cause someone to not be the most effective leader they can be,” Calhoun added.

She advised students to focus on continuing to develop these skills throughout their undergraduate degree programs.

“Leadership skills really do matter,” she added. “They have a direct impact on business success. To set yourself up, I suggest really investing and developing the skills that I’ve mentioned, that we see historically are the biggest obstacles for people who come to the workforce, and transverse into management positions.”

After the keynote address, Bauer student leaders and organizations were presented with several awards that recognized exceptional leadership in student organizations and individuals.

“Bauer College is the place where awesome happens because of everything that you all do,” Student Engagement Program Manager Sarayu Sundar said. “Each and every single one of our 30 student organizations, and more importantly the students in those organizations, make Bauer the place where awesome happens. You all are doing incredible things.”

Organization Awards

Excellence in Bauer Pride – Bauer Women Society
Excellence in Community Engagement – Hispanic Business Student Association
Excellence in External Relations – Beta Alpha Psi
Excellence in Innovation – Investment Banking Scholars Club
Excellence in Leadership – Finance Association

Individual Awards

Ted Bauer Leadership Award – Lola Soyebo Harris, MBA Candidate
Presidential Excellence – Miriam Haddad, Senior, BBA Finance
Leadership Excellence – Danielle Ford, Senior, BBA Finance
Service Excellence – Adele Nkeudem, Senior, BBA Accounting

By Priscilla Aceves