Texas Exes Student Chapter Kicks Off Spring Despite Brutal Cold (Slideshow)

By alcalde in Blog, Chapters on February 2, 2011 at 5:49 pm | No Comments

Some 40 students and a few alumni braved Austin’s bitter cold last night to attend the Texas Exes Student Chapter’s annual Spring Kickoff.

The cadre of current students ignored temperatures in the 20s and trekked over to the Texas Union Underground to eat, drink, and bowl with former UT students.

The kickoff was the first of a series of events designed to help Student Chapter members find jobs or internships.

“We’ve developed a more career-oriented focus this spring, with etiquette dinners and our Food for Thought ‘Dinner with 12 Strangers’ events,” TESC president Valerie Nguyen said. “We thought bowling was a really good activity for networking because it’s fun and you can talk between turns.”

Lisa Huynh, a freshman pre-pharmacy major, said she didn’t know that networking with alumni represented a big part of the events the student chapter puts on but was glad to find out.

She joined TESC because she liked the rallies and wanted to be a part of the history and traditions of the University, she said. Huynh is looking to get a summer job as a pharmacy technician, so she decided to do some networking.

“All these alumni put themselves out there and offer to help,” Huynh said, “so I thought I would come and meet some.”

Auston Holt, who graduated from UT in 2004 and works now as a business-development manager at a computer-security firm, said he had never been to a Student Chapter event.

He got the invite on Facebook and decided to stop by. His company, atsec information security, is looking to hire an entry-level consultant, he said.

Holt didn’t leave with any resumes, but he did meet some students and have a good time.

“Free bowling, free pizza, free drinks?” he said. “You can’t go wrong.”

And while Huynh didn’t find a summer job, she didn’t leave empty-handed. Her winning score of 93 earned her a $10 gift card to Starbucks.

Check out upcoming Student Chapter events here.

Photos by Valerie Cook