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As a survivor of abuse, Cindy Montalvo knows first-hand the sacrifices her mom has made. As a Brazilian immigrant in America, her mom was able to remove them from an unsafe environment and work hard to give Cindy a better life, even managing to become Disney World Passholders for over a decade.

Her mom’s dedication inspired Montalvo to take on more leadership roles and ultimately led her to enroll at the University of South Florida during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In her short time at USF, Montalvo has joined many campus organizations that have allowed her to empower women, promote diversity, and help those around her. She is co-president of the Women in Business Society, the marketing chair of the Latin American Student Association, and serves as a Resident Assistant committed to creating a safe and assistive space for her peers.

Now a senior majoring in business analytics and information systems with a concentration in cybersecurity, Montalvo has come full-circle from her traumatic past. She was accepted into the 2022-2023 Disney College Program, a competitive national internship program at the happiest place on Earth.

“The Disney College Program will allow me to work at a place where my mom and I were always able to enjoy the magic of the rides and characters during our hardest times. I will be able to use my business analytic skills to make an impact with a company that has brought much joy to my life,” she said.

Gregory Harvey, a Judy Genshaft Honors College student, has maintained a record of high academic achievement while involving himself with numerous extracurriculars.  

He is a gifted musician who has performed with numerous ensembles at USF. Harvey was part of the Herd of Thunder Marching Band for two seasons, serving as Mellophone Section Leader in one of them. He also has played in the Rumble Pep Band and USF’s Symphony Orchestra. The director of bands uses words such as tenacious and driven to describe Harvey.  

Harvey is also president of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity, leading and participating in many community outreach events benefiting kids, seniors, and cancer patients through music.  

As passionate as he is about music, Harvey is equally passionate about sports analytics. He previously worked with Fifth Quarter, Inc., as a content creator. His visualizations were shared by top analysts at Sports Illustrated and ESPN and he also authored 20+ sports research articles. He currently serves as a data tracking manager and content creator for USF’s baseball team. 

Harvey also currently works with Baseball Cloud, a firm that uses data and analytics to increase opportunities for young athletes. The developing company needed an intern to help build its online brand and with sports research. They offered Harvey the job on the spot, an atypical practice for coveted sports analytics internships. Harvey excelled and was soon hired to stay on part-time. He has been credited with helping the company grow its online following ten-fold during his tenure with the company. 

Christina Marshall works hard at balancing multiple leadership roles within USF student organizations. Yet she still manages to put 100 percent effort into her coursework, internships, and campus job. Those who know Marshall have described her as a self-motivated “true leader” with a “heart of gold.”

Marshall interned at the Children’s Cancer Center, a nonprofit organization supporting families affected by pediatric cancer, assisting with program communication and marketing.

She has been a sports marketing intern with USF Athletics for over a year. She’s passionate about creating an amazing fan experience, whether it’s managing a marketing table or interacting with fans during halftime activities.

She was selected to be in the Raymond James Marketing Mentorship Program, where she learned from senior leaders about marketing within the financial services industry.

Marshall serves as co-executive vice president of the American Marketing Association chapter at USF. She helps coordinate events to enhance the professional development of the group’s 90 members. She was previously the creative director at AMA, using her content creation skills to design graphics for the organization.

As the marketing coordinator for the USF Women in Business Society, she manages the organization’s social media accounts and promotes speaking engagements with successful women business leaders.

She also leads marketing campaigns as the marketing director for the USF Center for Student Involvement. There, she promotes student-led events to the university community, driving event attendance.

“My favorite part about my work is using my marketing skills to better connect students with the university,” she said.

Kaylynn Kennedy has poured her heart and soul into academia and professional development during four jam-packed years at USF.

The business advertising major will graduate in May with a resume full of professional experience. She’s had three internships in as many years. Each one gave her a real-world look into the marketing industry and helped her narrow her career interests.

Her first internship as a communications intern with the Muma College of Business taught her not to underestimate herself. She successfully executed a $14,000 promotional project.

Her second internship with Green Market Cafe taught her the importance of audience segmentation and sharpened her copywriting skills. She oversaw all the marketing emails.

Her third internship with Yacht Starship let her explore the different facets of the marketing field, from graphic design to newsletter creation to market research.

All three internships, along with advice from her mentors in the Corporate Mentor Program, helped grow her confidence and marketing skillset.

Outside of internships, Kennedy has been involved with USF Debate. She has won two national debate competitions and will compete in the PNW Conference of Scholars in Washington this April. 

Kennedy is part of the Zimmerman Advertising Program, too. ZAP allows students to pursue advertising as business majors by taking business core courses as well as higher-level advertising courses. The program’s required study-abroad trip brought her to London in 2019 which “opened her eyes to the world and allowed her to recognize the value of independence.” 

“One thing leads to another” is an idiom that explains how little moments lead to bigger ones. For Alia Abushkheidem, the “one thing” was the Bulls Business Community, an invitation-only program for high-achieving incoming freshmen. That led her to an internship with WUSF radio’s operations area. Next up was an opportunity to participate in the Student Managed Investment Fund, where she pitched stocks to industry leaders. That led to a corporate finance internship at Raymond James.

Abushkheidem also joined the Corporate Mentor Program, which pairs first-generation students with a business community mentor.  That mentor led her to an internship at Citi. During that summer finance internship at Citi, she recalls a conversation where another mentor asked her to identify a subject that she wished she knew more about. Abushkheidem said that for her, the subject was economics. This conversation led her to take a course in price theory, which led her to a new mentorship with an inspiring economics professor.  The result: Abushkheidem, still an undergraduate, enrolled in a graduate course focusing on antitrust and regulation. 

She will graduate in May with a degree in finance, a minor in economics, and a full-time job as a finance analyst. Because one thing leads to another, Abushkheidem also plans to also start a master’s program focusing on finance and economics.

Thanks to advanced placement and dual enrollment courses, Campbell Horn had 52 credit hours under her belt before she stepped into her first classroom at USF.  Horn earned a bachelor’s degree in 2020, summa cum laude.  Now an MBA student, Horn will leave USF with two degrees in the time most students take to earn one!

As an undergraduate, Horn made the dean’s list every semester and joined Delta Sigma Pi (a professional business fraternity). She also served as a resident assistant for USF Housing, where she helped create a safe and healthy living environment for students on campus – a tough job in typical circumstances but an especially challenging one during a pandemic! 

As an MBA student, Horn took 12 credit hours during her first semester. She also began working as a hall director at USF Housing, supervising a team of RAs and serving in a weekly on-call rotation to aid RAs.  As if that were not enough, Horn began working part-time as a graduate assistant and joined the Students of Color Advisory Board on USF’s St. Petersburg campus. She advocates for people of color and is helping with a research effort to identify mental health challenges students of color face at disproportionate rates. The findings will be used to develop a resource guide.

Beyond the university walls, she volunteers for Allendale United Methodist Church as part of an adult leadership team and she works with the LBGT community. Horn is also a data analyst for Inclusivity, LLC, a St. Petersburg-based consulting and management advising firm.

First-generation American Robert Camejo is pursuing the American Dream with gusto!  He will soon graduate with two bachelor’s degrees, both in rigorous programs, and a job offer that comes on the heels of five internships. His USF career also includes memberships in several organizations, participation in collegiate competitions and a slew of service activities.

Camejo was selected – one of few juniors – for the highly competitive Applied Securities Analysis program, which manages the college’s $1 million Student Managed Investment Fund. His analytical skills and team spirit led faculty to select him for USF’s team competing in the CFA Ethics Challenge, where students analyze a case that contains a variety of ethical dilemmas. The USF team placed highly in the competition.

In solo competition, Camejo won the 2021 Elevator Contest, a one-minute competition where students are challenged to sell themselves to area hiring managers.

As a sophomore, he landed a highly competitive internship at Merrill Lynch’s wealth management and financial planning division. As a junior, he headed to Chicago to intern at LaSalle, a global real estate firm. During his senior year, he interned for two companies, a mergers and acquisitions firm, Benchmark, and a boutique investment bank, Crosstree.  After graduation, he will join Crosstree as an investment banking analyst.

His community involvement includes membership in the USF Student Investment Club, business fraternity Delta Sigma Pi and the Corporate Mentor Program.  Camejo volunteers with Junior Achievement, Academy Prep, and has participated in single-day projects benefitting Metropolitan Ministries and Feeding Tampa Bay.

Sean Schrader is passionate about his local community and puts in the effort to make it the best possible place to live.

While still in high school, Schrader served as secretary for the Clearwater Neighborhoods Coalition. That commitment to community engagement led to more opportunities where he would hone his civil service and leadership skills. Currently, he works with other volunteers to ensure pilots are following the noise reduction practices around the St. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport.

At USF, he serves as a senator in the USF Student Government, helping to represent students on the St. Petersburg campus in the legislative decision-making process. He also is a student representative on the Faculty Council on Student Admissions and a member of the Order of the Golden Brahman, a leadership society for USF students.

As a student ambassador for Feeding Tampa Bay, he was able to see first-hand the vital role the food distribution events played in supporting his neighbors and the overall community.

“Personally, during the COVID-19 pandemic, seeing the toll it took on so many was terrible to witness. I was especially concerned about the business community, and seeing so many places that closed, never to reopen,” he said.

Schrader was so moved that he started a research tour over the summer. He visited five different industries to see how they had been impacted by COVID-19. He presented his findings at the USF Undergraduate Humanities Research Conference and will be sharing his research at Johns Hopkins University later this semester.

Andrew Davis has a heart for service. When he became an Eagle Scout, he designed and built a new obstacle course for Horses for Handicapped, one that its clients used to train for the Special Olympics. He has helped with countless service activities, from post-hurricane landscaping tasks at his church to collecting school supplies for an elementary school. For the past decade, Davis can be found at Bay Pines Memorial Cemetary on Veterans Day, placing flags on the graves of fallen soldiers. His altruistic nature is something to be admired.  

His academic prowess is equally commendable. Davis earned a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from St. Petersburg College in 2020.  He studied abroad at Estudio Sampere in Spain in 2018 and his resume is peppered with academic achievement awards, ranging from St. Petersburg College’s Alumni Achievement Award to its Global Distinction honor.

He has combined academics and community service as a college student. At USF, Davis serves as treasurer of USF’s College Republicans chapter and director of marketing for the Green and Gold Capital Group, an investment club. He serves on the Marshall Student Center Advisory Board and working on the “Involvement Challenge” hosted by the Center for Student Involvement. His short-term USF projects include helping fellow students register to vote and collecting nearly 2,000 canned items for Feed-A-Bull, USF’s food pantry.

Davis will complete the MBA program in August and, as a member of the Army Reserve Officer’s Training Corps., will then begin his military career.

To call Darcy Williams driven would be an understatement. In her almost four years at USF, the business honors student has successfully completed five internships and received three full-time job offers.

She completed an undergraduate thesis analyzing the pandemic’s impact on commercial real estate performance and trends and presented the findings at the 2022 Undergraduate Research Conference.

Williams has held numerous leadership positions within Phi Chi Theta, a professional business fraternity. As the vice president of recruitment for the chapter, she had the overwhelming task of growing membership during the pandemic. Once in-person activities resumed, she put into action a strategic recruitment plan and membership jumped by 91 percent.

She is also a stand-out when it comes to mentoring her peers as a student assistant in the Muma College of Business’ Collier Student Success Center. She started working at the center during her final semester at USF because she wanted to help others.

“I meet with students one on one to help them revise their resumes, prepare for interviews, and navigate the daunting job and internship search. It has been my favorite and most gratifying job by far,” she said.

After graduation, she heads to North Carolina to start a job as an institutional sales analyst with Barings, an international investment management firm with over $382 billion in assets under management.

She says she’s had “four amazing years” at USF and is beyond proud to call herself a Bull. And in a few weeks, she will call herself a proud alumna.

As the oldest son of three generations of hard-working business people, Gustavo Storck inherited his entrepreneurial spirit hearing about his parents and grandparents’ 16-hour shifts in their small bakery in Brazil.

That bakery was later converted into a supermarket chain that his parents run. The pandemic forced Storck, then a USF student majoring in chemical engineering, to return to his hometown, take online classes and help out with the family’s business.

Storck’s father trained him to be the head of buying and Storck suddenly had a crash course in supply chain management. He coordinated merchandise purchase orders and established new connections to overcome market shortages.

In 2021, he started a coffee shop adjoining his grandparents’ old bakery and was featured on local news as one of the youngest entrepreneurs to open a business during the pandemic.

“Every day was a new challenge and it didn’t take long for business to become my passion and addiction,” he said.

As a Muma College of Business student, he has taken his new career pathway with zest, diving headfirst into the USF chapter of the American Marketing Association and the student-led agency Consult-A-Bull. While serving as director of fundraising at AMA, Storck raised over $4,000 for the organization. He was instrumental in obtaining a government grant of over $5,000 that helped 20 marketing students attend an international conference in Chicago. Because of his successes, he was hired by Student Government and recently promoted to Tampa campus executive director of marketing and communications.

Kevin Alwell is not yet 25 but in May he will have two graduate degrees (an MBA and a Master of Science in Sport & Entertainment Management), a triple-major bachelor’s degree (statistics, economics and sport management), and a handful of jobs – in America and abroad – under his belt.  

Alwell currently works as an account coordinator in the partnerships area for the Tampa Bay Lightning but his internships have been varied. He served as director of operations for the University of Connecticut’s Women’s Soccer program, as a media assistant for the United States Soccer Federation, as a sponsorship marketing assistant (and later as a media operations assistant) for the International Champions Cup, and as a press liaison for FC Barcelona, SL Benfica, and ACF Fiorentina. More recently, he has served as a research fellow with Wasserman and a consumer intelligence fellow for the Tampa Bay Lightning.  He also participated in a short-term role with the Tampa Bay Super Bowl Host Committee.

As a student in the Vinik Sport & Entertainment Management program, he has also assisted with research projects, including published research (alongside faculty member Janelle Wells) that focused on improving diversity in sports industries.

Alwell has been recognized for his work. He was named an Honors Scholar by the University of Connecticut (where he earned his bachelor’s degrees). He was on the team named the Major League Soccer Operations Staff of the Year in 2017 (the New York Red Bulls) and again in 2019 (the Philadelphia Union). 

Alexis Ofstein has always had a knack for using her business skills to make another person’s life easier.

During an entrepreneurship class at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, she started Pure Serenity, a company that sold essential oil-infused bracelets to help her fellow classmates and the community relieve stress and cope with trauma.

Also in high school, she helped foster teens sharpen their financial literacy skills and apply for jobs. These early introductions to entrepreneurship, fiscal responsibility, and operating a business fueled Ofstein’s goal to become a certified financial planner.

As a third-year personal financial planning student, Ofstein is continuing to share her savvy sense for dollars and cents through her leadership positions and community service activities. She served as vice president of finance with her sorority Sigma Delta Tau and helped her sorority sisters increase their financial literacy and taught them the importance of building credit. She also helped with resume preparation.

More recently, Ofstein joined Phi Chi Theta where she now serves as vice president of finance.

Ofstein is an intern at the USF Federal Credit Union where she assists credit union members with products and services and processes deposits, withdrawals, and loan payments. She said the internship has helped her be more confident in sharing her financial knowledge.

“This internship has brought me out of my shell and made me more comfortable and knowledgeable in this field that I want to continue through school and beyond,” she said.

She says she thinks back to her high school days of helping others by sharing her financial know-how and believes personal financial planning has always been her calling.

Sydney Marshall arrived at the University of South Florida as an “extremely intimidated” first-generation international student from Trinidad and Tobago.

She eventually overcame those first-year college jitters by taking on leadership roles and getting more involved in campus life. Marshall is pursuing dual degrees – a bachelor’s in Business Analytics and Information Systems and a bachelor’s in Biology.

Marshall took on several leadership roles on the Caribbean Cultural Exchange, an organization that promotes cultural awareness of the people of the Caribbean. She was the group’s historian and now serves as its treasurer and accountable officer.

In 2020, she started a student instructional and learning assistant job that sparked her continuing love for mentoring. The position was supposed to be a one-semester commitment but she kept going back. The opportunity turned into a two-year role that she relishes.

As a mentor and guide to hundreds of students, Marshall coordinates biweekly tutoring sessions for more than 400 students and facilitates and manages small group discussions between more than 50 students in the classroom. The role has been the perfect mix of leadership and mentorship.

“Whether it’s teaching course content or connecting my students to resources on campus, being a student learning assistant has been incredibly fulfilling,” she said. 

Aside from mentoring, she finds time to nurture her interest in analytics and biology. She started her first independent research project on the effects of opioid abuse in justice-affected youth.

This summer she is starting an internship as a Summer Analyst at BNP Paribas CIB in Jersey City.

Since childhood, Akylai Davletova’s dream was to study abroad. However, growing up in the male-dominated Kyrgyz culture, where building a family is valued over choosing a career path, Davletova struggled in her pursuit of higher education.

But she persisted and started her journey abroad at age 9. That is when she left Kyrgyzstan to live with a host family to compete in an international dance competition in Turkey. It was there that she kindled her interest in travel and higher learning. 

At 16, she enrolled in an exchange program and lived with a host family in Wisconsin, where she graduated from high school. Davletova, who speaks four languages, enrolled in USF and is a junior majoring in finance.

At USF, Davletova is an equity research associate in the Student Investment Club where she creates financial reports and analyzes market research to recommend the stock portfolio. She has learned how to balance work, school, and life responsibilities. She maintains a GPA of 3.92 while working part-time jobs at the Academic Success Center and Housing Services at USF.

In her spare time, she helps new international students who are studying abroad from Kyrgyzstan adjust to campus life.

She is also a communications intern at the USF Muma College of Business. She works as an intern on the college’s communications and marketing team and was appointed as a campaign lead. 

Coming from a large family with six siblings, she is a first-generation college student at USF. With her family’s support, she made her dream come true.

Penelope Schweitzer is a straight-A student with a big heart for volunteerism and for helping new USF students get acclimated to everything that USF offers. She is a Portuguese American who arrived at USF having already earned an associate degree in high school.

Schweitzer is not one to sit on the sidelines. In fact, she has been active in on-campus activities since the first day she got here. She describes herself as a hard-working junior with a passion for working to support fellow USF students by improving their on-campus experiences.

She was a senator for her dorm in the Residence Hall Association. She was also an Honors Orientation Mentor with the Judy Genshaft Honors College. This semester, she will be presenting her research on German culture and fashion at the Undergraduate Research Conference.

This school year, Schweitzer served as a Peer Advisor Leader for the USF Office of New Student Connections. Through that role, she has worked with hundreds of second-year students who spent their freshmen year completely online. She mentored a core group of 50 students, helping them feel comfortable at USF and ensuring student success.

Beyond the halls of academia, Schweitzer volunteers with Suncoast Hospice/Empath Health where she has logged over 300 service hours in the teen and adult volunteer program. “This is a very personal cause for me since my Vavo, or “grandma” in Portuguese, had a major stroke in 2014 and I’ve seen how vital hospice/nursing care is for families,” she said.

Sport is powerful and Sarah Linebaugh is hoping to harness that power and be an agent of change in the business of sport and entertainment management.

As a student in the Vinik Sport and Entertainment Management program, Linebaugh is set to graduate in May with a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Sport and Entertainment Management.

In her time in the program, she made her mark as a stand-out student who possesses a genuine passion for helping others through sport. Faculty advisors describe her as someone who is not out to simply become absorbed by the sports industry, but she is intent on improving it.

She serves as the alumni relations officer for the program. In that role, Linebaugh works to engage with the program’s more than 200 alumni by planning events that get program graduates excited about giving back. She spearheaded fundraising and donation campaigns such as the Vinik Sport and Entertainment Management Day of Giving.

Linebaugh also sharpens her alumni outreach skills as the Student-Athlete Enhancement Fellow with USF Athletics. Since July 2021, she has helped plan signature events for USF’s more than 400 student-athletes. Among her memorable achievements were Senior Sendoff, Dine Like a Pro, and Destress Day. She also finds ways to engage with the more than 250 Bulls Varsity Club members and with USF’s 5,000-plus athletics alumni. 

Before enrolling at USF, Linebaugh earned a bachelor’s degree in sport and recreation management at Temple University’s School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management.

When Jack Luba arrived at the University of South Florida, he had been discharged from the Singapore Armed Forces merely 10 days prior. In his post-military life, he has relentlessly chased after every academic and professional opportunity he’s been presented. 

Luba is on track to graduate in 2023 with dual bachelor’s degrees — one in finance and one in world languages and cultures, with a concentration in Chinese. Luba said his diverse background has fostered a fascination with global businesses and markets. He grew up in six different countries spanning multiple continents. 

Luba is the president of Delta Sigma Pi, a co-ed professional business fraternity of more than 70 members at USF. He says through conversations with older brothers at Delta Sigma Pi, he became acquainted with prestigious careers in finance during freshman year. He relied on his brothers to help prepare for rigorous interviews and formulate a plan to break into investment banking. Inspired by their help, he created a system of mentorship within the fraternity. 

“My brothers were instrumental in my own professional development, and I wanted to cultivate an environment where all of our brothers could easily find professional mentorship with the fraternity,” he said. 

Luba spent last summer as an intern in the risk management group at the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, a Fortune 500 company, and prior to that, interned as a private equity analyst.  This summer, Luba will intern for Raymond James as an Investment Banking Summer Analyst in Chicago. 

Jared Krachenfels promised himself that he would make the most of his time while attending USF. With a few weeks from graduation, he is on track to not only meet, but exceed that pledge. 

Krachenfels is an honors student pursuing dual degrees — a bachelor’s degree in business analytics and information systems and a bachelor’s degree in econometrics and quantitative economics. 

He has served as vice president of professional activities of Delta Sigma Pi, a professional business fraternity, where he led events including presentations from blue-chip industry leaders, resume/interview workshops, and major-specific networking opportunities. This experience and the relationships formed with DSP brothers has expanded his realm of career opportunities and goals. 

For three summers, Krachenfels interned at Life’s Abundance in West Palm Beach, Florida. He worked in marketing, in research and project management, and as an operations and information systems analyst intern. The varied experiences gave him an insider’s view of what it takes to scale a private, employee-owned business into a sizeable organization. The mentoring he received from senior managers opened his eyes to “ethical management.”  

One of his proudest moments was facilitating the standardization of warehouse processes using data analytical skills. “What seemed like a collection of trivial changes to the warehouse process ended up delivering a highly effective, adaptable, and cost-saving solution,” he said.  

During his senior year at USF, he joined the Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement’s Bulls Service Break and led a student service team at Habitat for Humanity in South Carolina. 

Carter Bedinghaus joined Student Government and became an orientation team leader for the Sarasota-Manatee campus shortly after his first year of college. Today, some might call him the face of that campus’ student body.

Bedinghaus was elected president of the Student Government Senate during his sophomore year.  As president, he oversaw 15 elected senators and managed the group’s distribution of $1.5 million to student organizations. Additionally, Bedinghaus was selected to represent USF at the National Student Leadership Conference in St. Louis, Missouri, participated in USF Day at the Capitol, and was inducted into the Order of the Golden Brahman society. 

A Student Government advisor pointed out that Bedinghaus’ service was in challenging times, during USF’s consolidation of three campuses, a pandemic, and a budget crisis. Pointing out that turnover has long been an issue in the Senate, the advisor also notes that while Bedinghaus was the president, turnover amongst student leaders dropped to zero, crediting the young leader’s communications and problem-solving skills, contagious enthusiasm, and determination. 

Student Government is not the only organization benefitting from these traits. Bedinghaus also serves as a USF Ambassador, is the president of the Adventure Club, and helped plan USF’s TEDx program.

The marketing major aspires to become a dentist. He joined USF’s Pre-Dental Club and is now the group’s president. Bedinghaus will graduate from USF in May and will begin his tenure as a student in the LECOM School of Dental Medicine in the fall.

Junayed Jahangir is a leader among student leaders. He is also an aspiring business entrepreneur who wants to use the power of machine learning and cloud technology to solve the age-old issue facing every college campus: the lack of parking.

Jahangir is one of 27 businesses selected for the USF Student Innovation Incubator program. Through the U-park app, he wants to help college students find parking by allowing users to locate available spots with real-time data.

Bringing practical solutions to everyday problems is just one of Jahangir’s goals. “My proudest achievements revolved around applying my knowledge in professional and entrepreneurial endeavors. Since my freshman year, I have focused on giving back to the community through leadership and service.”

Jahangir, who speaks four languages, is on track to graduate in late 2022 as a double major in finance and accounting.

During his time at USF, he’s led his peers. As a sophomore, he was a residential assistant in Summit Hall where he regularly checked in on the academic and mental well-being of 40 college students. And in 2020, he graduated from the inaugural class of the Tampa Bay Collegiate Leadership program.

Currently, Jahangir is the USF Student Senate President and oversees more than 90 elected student representatives across USF’s three campuses. 

He combines service and community with an eye toward a greater good. Jahangir sits on the Sustainability and Innovation committee of United Way Suncoast.

This summer he will intern as a consultant for one of the world’s top consulting firms, Ernst & Young.

Nothing makes a more indelible mark on a future business entrepreneur than having to carry a stack of parcels and walk, often in the snow, from your house to the post office to ensure items customers bought at virtual auctions were mailed on time.

At 14, Samuel Micio did that and more and prides himself on achieving a 100 percent customer satisfaction rating in his first e-commerce business. 

Micio has come a long way since starting and growing MIC Collectibles. He used his profits from the fledgling business to invest in stocks and his passion for finance took root. As a freshman he started the Green & Gold Capital Group, an investment club where no investment, no matter how unconventional it may be, is off the table.

As a finance major at the USF Muma College of Business, Micio continued on his entrepreneurial trajectory and found success in commercial real estate opportunities. And when opportunities were limited, he created his own.

He also co-founded the tech startup What’s the Move? Inc. which created the app Slyde Mobile. The app gives users updates from local clubs and events and allows them to enjoy a fun night out. In 2021, he co-founded Mu Nu Upsilon, the first-ever professional fraternity at USF focused on finance and financial planning.

After graduation, Micio plans to work in real estate development and eventually wants to open his own real estate development and brokerage firm. Currently, he is a land development intern at Meritage Homes where he is learning to manage the development of multi-phase subdivisions of as many as 675 homes.

Described as conscientious, bright, and hardworking, Rachel Rozet was never one to shy away from a challenge. As both a business analytics student and a Judy Genshaft Honors College student, with two additional minors, Rozet has maintained her streak of straight-As while balancing her professional and community involvement on campus.

Rozet has made significant contributions to the Judy Genshaft Honors College by serving as an Honors Foundations Peer Mentor. In this role, she taught a section of Honors Foundations, a course that helps first-year students transition smoothly into college life.

She was recently the vice president of pledge education for the business fraternity Delta Sigma Pi. She planned and executed the fraternity’s pledge program, ensuring students interested in joining would fully understand and commit to the group. Rozet says this experience helped her grow as a leader.

The “position helped challenge both my public speaking and leadership skills,” she said. “I cultivated a welcoming environment for new pledges and rose as a figurehead for what Delta Sigma Pi stands for.”

The fraternity is a beacon for professionalism and community service. Guiding pledges through modules on the fraternity’s history and, eventually, its cherished traditions was one of her most gratifying experiences.

Outside of USF, Rozet worked as a contracted project management support specialist for Masonite International Corporation in Ybor City. In that role, she maintained and updated data for infrastructure and software projects. She will return to the company in the summer for another IT position.

A-B LoBianco is a graduate student pursuing an MBA and a Master of Science in Sport & Entertainment Management.

Throughout her life, LoBianco has been designing events as a platform for perspectives and experiences that bring people together.

Initially from Irvine, California, she earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, with an emphasis in Operations Management, and two certificates, in three years at the University of Colorado Boulder. During her time with the Leeds School of Business, she leveraged the stories of her peers while serving on student governments and student-led executive boards. Ultimately, she found her passion while studying with the Leeds Business of Sports Program, igniting the spark that drove her to Tampa.

Since arriving in 2021, she has “come to adore the fires and desires behind the fans who come through Amalie Arena and Raymond James Stadium while working professional sporting events and concerts.”

LoBianco has also been a leader as the First-Year Ambassador, helping to bridge the cultural interests of her graduate program’s students and faculty.

With Tampa as her classroom, she has loved volunteering with the Tampa Bay Sports Commission under event staff and hospitality, and all she has learned through interning with the USF Athletics Event Management department.

Through her ambitions, LoBianco is proud to live by her guiding principles- serve with a “why,” empower the community, share authentic experiences, and value legacy. Most importantly, she cherishes a foundation of support for and from those she calls family.

Creativity is a recurring theme in Samantha Moffett’s list of professional and personal pursuits. Whether it’s dancing as a member of the Golden Bulls Dance Team or writing blog content to boost traffic on a website, being creative has always been her outlet.

Moffett is in the USF Muma College of Business’ Master of Science in Marketing program with a concentration in digital marketing and brand management. The graduate program allows her to combine her two passions: creativity and business.

Moffett is already a USF alumna, having earned her bachelor’s degree in mass communications with a concentration in advertising in 2019.

Returning to USF as a graduate student has given her the opportunity to build impactful relationships with first-generation undergraduate business students through the Collier Student Success Center’s Corporate Mentor Program. As an advisor to over 100 students, she helps to organize networking events, resume review sessions, mock interviews, as well as corporate tours with businesses in the marketing, finance, and technology sector.

Through mentorship, she has become a support system for students and can provide critical life business skills, such as money mastery, decision making, or goal setting.

“Witnessing how mentorship and professional development can impact students’ confidence and sense of purpose has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life,” she said.

Outside of USF, she works as a content coordinator with Leverage Digital Marketing where she manages an SEO writing team, writes articles, and helps with brand strategy and online reputation management for more than 15 different brands.

Jonathan Borelly Gerlein has been called Mr. USF – literally. He won the Mr. USF scholarship pageant in 2020. He learned of the competition from his involvement in the Center for Student Involvement, where he serves as vice president of programming. He leads three teams who organize weekly events, all related to getting fellow students involved on campus and in the community. Borelly was the lead for Bulls Night Out, handling everything from recruiting and managing volunteers to event logistics to branding. He also planned the 2021 Running with the Bulls Parade and despite a disappointing cancellation of the homecoming parade due to inclement weather, says he learned a lot about perseverance and adaptability from that project.  

His involvement has not come at the expense of academics or professional development. Borelly, a marketing major with a concentration in entrepreneurship and a minor in information systems management, Borelly has a 3.93 grade point average and his name has appeared on the dean’s list for six consecutive semesters. Additionally, Borelly is pursuing a certificate in visualization and design from the Zimmerman School of Advertising and Mass Communications. 

Borelly also serves as an intern at Chief Outsiders, a fractional CMO firm with 100+ marketing consultants. Borelly, who earned HubSpot certification earlier this year, helps with social media, conducts competitor research and helps manage website content.

An international student from Colombia, Borelly speaks two languages. He has been a member of the American Marketing Association and is a peer leader in the Corporate Mentor Program serving first-generation college students.

As a first-generation student, Dominic Caprio dealt with some self-imposed pressure as an undergraduate.  He wanted to perform well in school and make his family proud.  Sometimes that pressure led him to focus on tasks that led to the grade more so than the learning itself. Interestingly, when he began studying for the graduate admissions test he discovered that the joy of learning comes when one stops focusing on a grade.  

In 2021, Caprio was juggling senior-level coursework, a job, and test prep. He worked with practice tests and set weekly studying goals where he focused on the material more than the grade.  His diligence led to a gain of more than 150 points on the GMAT.

Now a 4.0 graduate student who will graduate with an MBA in 2023, Caprio feels that he has finally found his passion for academics, saying that, for the first time in his academic career, he is eager to attend class, genuinely enjoys the lessons and finds himself excited to complete assignments. He found that when he focuses on the lessons more than the grades, good grades follow. 

As an undergraduate, he was a secretary of USF’s Volleyball Club and participated in the Corporate Mentor Program, which connects students with mentors from the business community.  He also served as a resident assistant and worked as an office assistant for USF’s College of The Arts. Today, he works as an assistant resident life coordinator for USF Housing, where he supervises a dozen RAs and supports social justice educational programming.

Syed Muneeb Ahmed took a 22-hour flight from United Arab Emirates to come to the U.S. without family or friends. He was 17, shy and culture-shocked. He would take the stairs in his dorm, up and down seven floors just to avoid elevator chit-chat. All that has changed.

Over the past four years, he has worked as a door-to-door salesman, an actor and a leader of international students. He founded and captained the Raging Bulls soccer team, presented mobile apps to business experts, joined a choir and has done everything an introvert would never do. Personal and professional development, he says, comes through adversity and overcoming fear.

As the first person in his family to go to college in the U.S., Ahmed will graduate in May with a bachelor’s degree in business analytics and information systems, with a concentration in cybersecurity. He already has a job offer from Apple and is involved in Product Management at Rentersbay.com. He received a scholarship to attend the Make School’s summer coding academy in San Francisco last year, and he was selected as one of the 10 students from USF to attend the Florida International Leadership Conference this year.

Last year, Ahmed won the Elevator Pitch Competition for the first time, beating 150 other business students. Since then, he has gone on to compete and win in two other pitch competitions. In competitions alone, Ahmed has won over $5,000. He has also been awarded the H. Wayne Huizenga Endowed scholarship in entrepreneurship. Ahmed sees himself on a never-ending journey, solving problems through tech and innovation and having a positive impact on people’s lives.

Bisma Balouch is the first in her family to get an education abroad as she hopes to build a successful career and make her family in Pakistan proud. Balouch believes that being part of the community is essential for personal and professional growth. Her involvement with Bulls Service Break is among the best memories she has at USF. She says that experience opened her eyes to the importance of selfless community work and helping other people less fortunate.

Balouch has an overall GPA of 3.7 and will graduate in May 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in finance and business analytics and information systems. Working with the USF Center for Civic and Leadership Engagement, she dedicates herself to raising awareness about social issues and injustices through education, service and cultural exchange while empowering students to become catalysts for positive social change.

She currently serves as a Trip Educator for the Minority Empowerment and Refugee Rights Trip, which works with the Friends of Refugees organization in Atlanta. She coordinates all educational aspects of the trip and she engages students in critical conversations about minority and refugee populations. She continues to engage in opportunities that allow her to build leadership skills through service to others.

She is member of the Muma College of Business Corporate Mentor Program and is the treasurer for Enactus at USF, where she evaluates financial decisions and  documents purchase request forms. She manages to do all these things and keep her grades up while working 20 hours a week at a restaurant on campus.

A native of Pakistan, Balouch hopes to achieve her dream of bridging the educational gender gap in her country.

Pamela Bulu knows she has a different way of thinking when it comes to business. Though she possesses an interest in art, she doesn’t see much direct application in her business education. She does, however utilize the way the arts makes her visualize and explain data, and therein lies the uniqueness of her personality. She has settled on the idea that there is an important connection between the arts and her business analytics and information systems major.

Bulu will graduate in May with a concentration in cybersecurity. She is a member of the Bulls Business Network and the Muma College of Business Leadership Program. At Research Day 2018, Bulu won the best public health poster. Being a full-time student with a part-time job can be stressful, but her grades have not suffered. She has an overall 4.0 GPA even with the extra challenges of taking high-level departmental electives.

She also is a Provost Scholar, a program that recognizes students who enter USF directly from high school with 18 or more college credits. The program allows Bulu to graduate a year ahead of her peers with a portfolio of professional development experiences.

She is the recipient of the USAA Annual Scholarship, the USF Presidential Scholarship and the National Advanced Placement Scholarship. She plans to graduate with a degree in business and a certificate in business and art.

Christine Cazeau is in her final year at USF and is a marketing development intern at Raymond James. But her goal is not to own mega mansions and private airplanes. She wants to start a nonprofit that helps the homeless by not just feeding them, but by aiding them in returning to school or entering the workforce.

This desire comes from her work with the Black Student Union in which she helps feed nearly 400 homeless people weekly. A little boy named Yusuf, who she keeps in touch with regularly, is among those she has helped. Cazeau will graduate in May with an overall GPA of 3.8 and, in spite of a heavy load of internships and extracurricular activities, she has been on the dean’s list for four consecutive semesters.

Starting as a nursing major, Cazeau soon realized her passions were elsewhere and found her niche in marketing. She serves as the marketing director for Alpha Kappa Psi and is the public relations contact for the Black Student Union. She also is a USF Student Government senator where she enhanced career advising for the dean’s office.

She is involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay, USF’s Honors College and the marketing mentorship program. She is a recipient of the USF Alumni Association Honors and Ethics Scholarship. She is also trilingual in English, French and Creole.

Daniel Chapman grew up in a poor area of Scotland, but was instilled with a sense of the importance of education and community service. Like most international students, coming here from a far-off home was difficult, but Chapman arrived with that commitment to education and community intact.

He will graduate in May and with a 3.91 GPA, his name is a regular on the dean’s list. He is the recipient of the USF History of Achievement Award and the Raymond James Scholarship in Business. He is also a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma Honors Society and has volunteered at Junior Achievement, teaching financial literacy to elementary and middle school students and stressing the value of education.

Volunteering at Feeding Tampa Bay, Chapman saw the extent of those without access to healthy and reliable food in the region. This spurred his desire to give back to the community. At USF, he devotes time to the Bulls Business Community and the Business Honors Service Association. He is a peer leader for business calculus, where he helps a class of 30 students master difficult concepts.

He serves as Student Managed Investment Fund manager, where he studies stocks and helps pitch them to professional investors using actual money in the student fund. He also served as a summer analyst intern for Goldman Sachs in New York.

Taylor Croizat has one foot in academia and the other in the workplace. She has worked for the Bank of Tampa for the past five years, earning steady promotions, while attending Hillsborough Community College and USF full time, working toward a bachelor’s degree in accounting. She has an overall GPA of 3.75.

Croizat began working at the Bank of Tampa in 2013 and within the first year, she was promoted to senior banking representative responsible for training new employees and building relationships with clients. She managed the vault and ATM and completed monthly audits. Just before transferring to USF, she was promoted to accounting representative and that’s when she found her calling. A short time later, she was promoted to accounting specialist.

In that role, she has improved the accounts payable processes and procedures, and will soon transition to assist on the accounting side of the bank’s investment portfolio. She helped create the 2018 budget for various departments and fostered relationships among the accounting department and other departments.

In 2017, Croizat won the Employee of the Year Award. All this while taking a full load of classes at USF and being involved in extracurricular activities including cooking meals for families at the Ronald McDonald House in Tampa, ringing the bell for the Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Campaign and being a co-chair for the Wellness Committee at the Bank of Tampa.

Olivia Davis draws on a motivation that goes back a long way, back to when she was an infant. “I can’t wait to watch you grow and learn,” her mother wrote in Davis’ baby book. Her mom, who raised her with a vision of a bright future and successful career, passed away when Davis was 10 years old, but that only added to the importance of the sentiment. She continues to strive to make her mother proud and live the best life she can in the classroom and in her career.

Davis is now a business management major who will graduate in May with an overall GPA of 3.71. She has served as vice president of operations at the Kappa Delta sorority and has maintained an active membership in the College Republicans and Women in Business Society. She has interned both locally and in Washington, D.C., where last year she worked as a public-opinion research intern for the Heritage Foundation’s Young Leaders Program. The year before, she was a congressional intern for U.S. Rep. Rich Nugent, R-Florida.

For the past three years, Davis has worked as a graphic design and online marketing intern for the USF College of The Arts, handling duties that range from updating the college’s website to designing posters and proposals for media campaigns.

She also has found time to be an active volunteer with Girl Scouts of the USA, the Joshua House and Junior Achievement. Her immediate future after graduation is set. She has accepted a job as operations analyst for the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation.

Zachary Engle will graduate in December, but he already has one foot in the corporate world. He works 70-hour weeks during the summer at Hersheypark in Hershey, Pennsylvania. There, he oversees the day-to-day operations of six game stands and the newly remodeled arcade, supervising two assistant supervisors, two foremen and about 45 clerks.

Engle is majoring in management with a human resources concentration and has an overall GPA of 3.92. He is an Eagle Scout and staffed his council’s National Youth Leadership Training course for two years. He also joined Alpha Phi Omega during his first semester at the university, performing 245 hours of service for the Tampa community over the eight semesters he has been at USF, in addition to the hours spent working with his parents in a food pantry in Mount Dora, Florida.

Community service is a big part of Engle’s life. His efforts have included feeding the homeless, caring for veterans, tutoring Boy Scouts and helping out with local animal services. His commitment to the community, he says, yields the reward of seeing the positive impact it has on others.

He has served as Alpha Phi Omega’s Tau Mu chapter’s president for three terms as well as service vice president and corresponding secretary. He holds a Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt and is being honored with the fraternity chapter’s Distinguished Service Key for outstanding service to the fraternity over an extended period of time.