The UT Pan American scholarship recipients are Julia Maldonado, Sandy Salinas, Erika Marquez, Eric Leal and Sally Marie Balderas. The students' Insurance and Risk management professor Steve Lovell said all of the scholarship recipients were exemplary.

"Nothing has come easy for any of these students," said Lovell. "Most of the students support themselves by working on or off campus, yet they have excelled in their classes and in leadership roles. These young men and women will be successful wherever they wind up."

ICT has provided more than $300,000 to students and insurance and risk management programs in Texas over the past eight years. A recent survey showed at least one out of every three scholarship recipient found a job in the insurance industry.

The Insurance Council of Texas is the largest state insurance trade association in the country consisting of approximately 500 property and casualty insurers writing business in Texas. For more information to ICT's Web site at www.insurancecouncil.org.

     A campaign to brand a person, place or thing is complicated. A well thought-out campaign conveys the right image and is recognizable and memorable to the intended audience. These campaigns can go viral where they integrate into the mainstream media and become more than just advertisements. The right branding campaign can create buzz and excitement around the brand. Think iPod. Think Geico. Think Obama and Yes We Can.

     Dr. Fuat Firat’s MBA course had the opportunity to help the city of McAllen brand itself as a destination for future residents in the hopes of creating a viral and iconic brand image for the city. This past fall, students in the class were asked to research the city by looking into its history and current economic situations then determine the demographics most relevant to the city’s wanted growth.

     Each student group also had to assess the city’s weakneses and potential threates. Examples of these ranged from the area’s new business potential to the “braind drain”. The so called brain drain occurs when an area’s educated young people leave for higher paying jobs elsewhere due to a lack of high-paying jobs here.

     These students dissected the city into its many variable from the segmentation of the so called “generation y” demographic to the “baby boomers” allowing them to better understand the intricacies of McAllen’s developing economic machine. The exercise culminated in four different branding campaigns depicting the city as the destination place for people who aspire to something more.

            Love spans all facets of life, from the smallest crevice to the highest peak; nothing escapes its grasp—not even the students of the College of Busines Administration.

            Marco Brede and Eliane Brede, two students in CoBA, got hitched this past November after having known each other since Fall 2006. Of course, back then neither of them knew just how far they’d go together…not even that they’d be together.

            Marco, a foreign exchange student from Luneburg, Germany was here for a semester of study abroad, while Eliane was a full time exchange student from Reynosa. Their first meeting was not at all the love at first sight scenario.

            “We met during a [friendly dinner that felt a little too serious]. So I really didn’t like her and she really didn’t like me. We got closer together, during the rollercoaster, sitting next to each other. She was holding my hand saying ‘oh I’m so scared’. So fake but anyway,” said Marco half laughing to Eliane.

            Eliane, with a soft smile on her face, continued, “We went on this six flags trip that the university organized during October. They (Marco and the other German foreign exchange students) went too so we started talking there. After that we kept on talking, meeting here at the school.”

            The couple continued to speak for the rest of that school year. With Marco returning to Germany, Eliane decided to take her semester long study abroad session there to simultaneously visit him during the Fall ’07 semester. It was during this trip that Marco proposed to Eliane.

            The couple didn’t set a date for their marriage until Marco’s return in January 2009 to pursue his graduate program here at CoBA. Now, with one wedding out of the way, the couple plans to get married in Germany where the rest of Marco’s family will be able to witness the ceremony.

            Even now, the couple looks onto the future with open sights. Where do they go from here considering the opportunities available to them? With foundations in three separate countries spanning two different continents, Eliane and Marco have everything to look forward to.

            The couple still has plenty of time to decide their path in life. Eliane will graduate this fall and then pursue her master’s degree giving them ample time to decide what life to live together—and where.