The Intersection of Business & Service
Bauer in D.C. Program Inspires Alumni to Pursue Public Service Careers
At the C. T. Bauer College of Business, there are many career trajectories students can take, with many graduates starting careers in investment banking, consulting, public accounting and other common business fields. While Bauer College curriculum is tailored for students to find success in these industries, their skills aren’t only applicable to traditional business roles.
Through the Bauer in D.C. Fellowship Program, an experiential learning program where students find and complete internships in the nation’s capital, several participants have kickstarted their careers in public service. By giving students the opportunity to spend a semester gaining professional experience in Washington D.C., one of the program’s goals is for students to see firsthand people working to effect change.
“Students get to witness the intersection of business and government so they can see how the policies that are being discussed, debated, voted upon and ultimately implemented actually affect the everyday person and how that affects us and our business lives,” Bauer in D.C. Fellowship Director Colleen Davies said.
Over the years, many past Bauer in D.C. fellows have been inspired by the program to blend their business backgrounds with public serving roles. We caught up with three alumni who shared where their careers took them after the program.
Nadine Tavera (BBA '13)
Spring 2013 Bauer in D.C. Alumna
While it’s been more than a decade since Nadine Tavera participated in Bauer in D.C., she still has fond memories of her days in the program. As a part of the inaugural 2013 cohort, Tavera and her peers experienced the bustling of the capital during an inauguration year, all while navigating what their final semester of college would look like.
In the program, Tavera interned with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Office of Minority and Women Inclusion. Through the work, Tavera says she learned, gained mentors and built community. After graduation, she spent two years working in corporate finance before pivoting to the nonprofit and social impact space, inspired by the passion for helping others that she found in the program.
“When I had the opportunity to intern in D.C., I gained a deep appreciation for the impact of my work, experiencing firsthand the profound satisfaction that comes from contributing to a greater purpose each day,” Tavera said. “Rather than just meeting a certain number, a certain bottom line for a company, I saw first-hand how my work, along with that of colleagues across different agencies, very directly impacted the public.”
While Tavera may have left the traditional corporate business environment, she still used what she learned from her finance degree while later working for BakerRipley, a local nonprofit that connects neighbors and communities to resources, education and opportunity. This expanded her mindset of what careers she would be able to pursue than what she first thought was possible as a freshman.
“It's been really rewarding to be able to pair those analytical and technical skills that I gained at Bauer and in my own early career in finance and bring those skills and strengths into the nonprofit space to help the community and internally improve the organizations that I've worked at,” Tavera said.
Working at a nonprofit, Tavera was able to learn amongst her peers who came from different educational and professional backgrounds than her. While many of the people she worked with had backgrounds in social work and government relations, Tavera’s familiarity with finance and running numbers was a strength she brought to the table.
“Just about at any nonprofit, it does require you to be entrepreneurial and scrappy and figure out ways to manage with less resources,” Tavera said. “I was able to translate some of those skills and figure out ways to improve processes and help teams execute goals. My core competencies and passions lie within project management and operational efficiency, while bringing in new tools to do things a little quicker and removing obstacles to inform decisions and drive projects forward.”
No matter if you want to stay in the business world or not, Tavera says Bauer in D.C. gets students exposed to different career possibilities and build community with their cohort along the way.
“Even if you're not sure about a career in public service just yet, there are tons of business roles out there — things like consulting for government or nonprofits — where your skills can really make a difference and open up a unique career path,” she said. “And I think that kind of experience, no matter what you do, will help you become a better person, especially in the world we live in now.”
Kobe Terrier (BBA '19)
Spring 2019 Bauer in D.C. Alumnus
The Bauer in D.C. experience was nothing short of memorable for Kobe Terrier, who interned on Capitol Hill during the 2019 government shutdown.
Starting a few months after the 2018 election, Terrier was an intern for U.S. Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia, who was a freshman Congressional member at the time. Terrier has always had an interest in public service, but it was this experience that changed his perspective on what career possibilities are out there for him.
“The Bauer D.C. Fellowship Program is what made me decide that I did want to work in public service,” Terrier said. “I wanted to combine my experience at Bauer and my more policy and public facing experience and merge the two and work in more of a public finance sector for government service.”
After graduation, Terrier took a job in investment services, dealing with clients and portfolios during the pandemic. While he enjoyed using his business and finance knowledge, Terrier knew he wanted to get back to the public sector. This led him to pursue his Master of Public Administration from New York University.
Terrier now works for the New York City Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget, serving as a Unit Head for Law, Elected Officials, Administration and Finance. He and his team manage the budgets and operations of 19 city agencies and entities. Terrier describes his role as where public policy and finance merge.
“It is very much policy and programmatic based, but our entire role is very data heavy and finance heavy,” he said. “We are doing projections to determine whether our agencies have enough funding. We're doing projections to determine really every single aspect.”
Looking back on his journey to get to this position, Terrier is grateful for the ability to personalize the Bauer in D.C. experience to his interests. Out of the 2019 cohort, he says they all had very different internships, catered to their wants.
“It was a really valuable program for personal and professional growth. And really it was a program where you could make what you wanted of it,” Terrier said.
Nathan Blade-Smith (BBA '21)
Spring 2021 Bauer in D.C. Alumnus
Throughout his time as a Bauer student, Nathan Blade-Smith always thought the next step was to go to law school. Given his interests, the finance and political science dual degree holder believed the only career avenue that made sense was to become a lawyer. While it never seemed like a perfect fit, he felt it was the easiest path of progression his career could take.
It was during his time in Bauer in D.C. when things began to clear up. The program gave Blade-Smith the opportunity to explore his interests and expand his perspective on what career opportunities were out there. He spent the semester as an intern with the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, where he currently works as a senior development associate.
“I was sort of overwhelmed by the decision of having to choose an interest of mine to focus a job and the next steps of my life on,” Blade-Smith said. “Bauer in D.C. was the perfect opportunity to gain experiences in a few of those interests the final semester of my college experience, and it ultimately resulted in where I have spent the beginning of my professional career.”
Blade-Smith works for a think tank, a type of organization that he says is hard to understand outside the bubble of where policy happens. By relocating to Washington as a part of the program, Blade-Smith was able to explore an industry that wouldn’t have been possible to do in Houston or remotely.
“It was sort of a solution to my own ignorance,” Blade-Smith said. “I was just unaware of what other career opportunities there were for me, especially in wrapping up undergrad. There were opportunities to gain new professional experiences, meet mentors and develop outside of what you might think is the correct path for you.”
Despite not directly working for a government agency, Blade-Smith spoke to the greater ecosystem of public service and working to make a difference at the capital. Through the program, he says he was able to match the values and principles that are important to him to a career where he can make a meaningful impact.
“The first part of my career has been committed to some sense of progressing the public good, and I think that for a lot of people this is something they look for in a career,” Blade-Smith said. “How can I match my own interests or my own principles or beliefs towards what I do for a day-to-day job?”
For Bauer students, Blade-Smith says Bauer in D.C. can expand their perspective outside the traditional business world.
“I was interested in the relationship of business to policy, business to relationships, that sort of dynamic,” Blade-Smith said. “Bauer in D.C. can really give some context to a wider range of options outside of what you might normally expect a business degree to afford you.”
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