By Blake Hollingsworth | Reporter
The Hankamer Student Organization is a student-run organization that acts as a liaison between Hankamer School of Business students and Sandeep Mazumder, business school dean, according to Baylor’s website.
Austin senior and HSO president David Jabour said the organization’s mission is to create excitement in the business school.
“The overall goal is [that] I want every student to be more excited to walk into the business school today than they were yesterday,” Jabour said.
Colleyville senior and executive chairman Preston Jones agreed, further saying a major role of HSO is to “increase connectivity” within the business school.
Furthermore, the organization engages with students through events meant to introduce them to faculty, organizations and fellow business students. Dallas junior and executive committee member Madeline Prescott discussed this role, citing open house events as examples.
“One of the major things we do is the big open house events that go on in the business school,” Prescott said. “The organization open house event or ‘Meet Your Major’ event allows students to see different aspects of the business school that they don’t see in the classrooms. I think they’re really important for connecting the students with other students, but also with faculty.”
HSO runs an Instagram account called “BearsofBusiness” where they post news and entertainment related to the business school.
The account initially had a serious tone. However, the staff’s first reel, ranking HSB team rooms, performed well and so staff shifted their focus toward more creative content, according to Jabour. The page now posts humorous content regularly, including their weekly “Vest Wednesday” and “almost Friday” posts.
“We started posting some memes,” Jabour said. “We are still always promoting the different events that freshmen need to know about — like Welcome to Hankamer — but also having fun content that is really specific and niche because there’s 4,000 students in the business school that are all going through the same thing.”
Looking to the future, Indianapolis, Ind., sophomore member Luke Tiernon discussed future plans and collaborative efforts.
“One of the big projects that I want to bring to HSO is a worship bank,” Tiernon said. “I got the pleasure of talking this last semester with the dean and talking through what that would look like and brainstorming. We’re sort of working through the kinks. I think it’s probably going to happen next semester.”
HSO also helps lead the Business Council, an umbrella organization that fosters collaboration between all the business student organizations and clubs at Baylor.
As part of the Council, Jabour said his objective for HSO this year is to get other student organizations “more connected,” allowing them to “really grow.”
“We want the organizations in the school to know that we’re a resource for them and that they can come talk to us,” Prescott said. “HSO is here to serve the business school. We’re not just like any other organization you can join. We have a purpose of serving the people that are around us.”
