Up.

That seems to be the only direction Javeria Farooqi can go, at least metaphorically. Farooqi, an MBA graduate student and president of the MBA Association, has been the recipient of many honors this semester. On May 11th, she became one of the newest honorees of the Texas Business Hall of Fame scholarship. The award comes with $10,000.

"I was doing what I love doing and in the process I was honored with such great awards. I believe when you sincerely love what your doing it just comes naturally. My goal is not to win awards. My goal is to continuously gain and share knowledge and that is a never ending goal and if while doing that I win awards then that's just the cherry on top of it all."

The Texas Business Hall of Fame scholarship is awarded to only 15 students who have demonstrated academic excellence and leadership, and have a propensity for entrepreneurial achievement.

This year's Winter Texans were promised that a donation would be made to the Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley, if they responded to a survey. And respond they did! More than one thousand Winter Texans participated in this year's Winter Texan Study, according to Dr. Penny Simpson, director of the Valley Markets and Tourism Research Center in CoBA.

As a result, Simpson presented a check for $1,000 to Food Bank RGV representatives Crissy Cruz, Manager of Communication & Advocacy and Karen Featherston, Special Events Manager in April. Cruz and Featherston thanked the Center and Winter Texans, saying that the donation should provide about 5,000 meals for the hungry.

"The response of Winter Texans to our research is usually very good but I think the added incentive of helping other via a donation to the Food Bank was a crucial factor in this year's record number of study participants," said Simpson. "Our Winter Texans are usually generous volunteers for charity while in the Valley and we're grateful to play a part in that charity this year."

For more than 20 years, the Center has been conducting research on Winter Texans in the Valley and their economic impact on the regional economy. This year's report should be available this summer. For summary information on Winter Texans studies, visit http://coba.utpa.edu/tourism.

Shown are Mark Hanna from the Insurance Council of Texas with scholarship winners Juan Chavez, Marcos Cantu, Juan Perales, Jon Obie Valdivia, and Annisa Olivia Chavez, and CoBA finance instructor K. Steven Lovell.

The Insurance Council of Texas presented five CoBA students with scholarships on April 15.  The students are Juan Chavez, Marcos Cantu, Juan Perales, Jon Obie Valdivia, and Annisa Olivia Chavez.  All the students are finance majors except for Chavez who is majoring in accounting.

To be eligible for the $2,000 scholarships, students must have a 3.0 gpa, graduate after December 2009 and have an interest in a career in insurance or risk management. In addition to the financial award, scholarship winners are invited to attend the Annual ICT Conference where they will be introduced to top executive in the insurance industry in Texas. Winners’ resumes will also be given to ICT board members who are executives in the Texas insurance industry.