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Muma College of Business Students Earn Golden Bull Awards

By Keith Morelli

TAMPA (May 12, 2021) -- Two exceptional Muma College of Business students were honored with Golden Bull awards, recognizing not only their academic accomplishments, but also their leadership skills and engagement capabilities with USF communities and beyond.

Mary Beth Williams and Jessica Senatus are also on the prestigious 25 Under 25 list published by the business college this spring. A third award winner, Leda Alvim, a communications major, interned with the Muma College of Business

Williams, who graduated this month with a bachelor’s degree in finance, also studied at the Judy Genshaft Honors College. Williams engaged with students and alumni, promoting campus involvement. She served as president of the Order of the Golden Brahman; an organization that recognizes and engages top student leaders on campus while fostering strong relationships with alumni and other friends of USF. The Order underwent a revitalizing change under Williams’ leadership.

“Even though all of my term has been spent in the virtual environment,” she said, “I focused on bringing a renewed energy to the organization and brought a fresh approach to student and alumni leadership.”

In addition to strengthening the student membership of the Order, Williams worked with the current leadership to form the foundation for a mentorship program involving young alumni as mentors to students.

As an honors college member, Williams served as an honors ambassador and peer mentor. She also traveled to the Dominican Republic in 2018 on a public health internship.

As a peer mentor, Williams refocused the curriculum on material that would best support incoming freshmen. She introduced topics related to personal finance and professional development. Over the past two years, she trained 85 peer mentors and 20 peer mentor leads on the importance of developing healthy finance habits.
 
She also served as a Tampa Campus Council Committee member for Student Government, delivered presentations for the Honors Foundation’s training program and Student Staff Leadership Institute and assisted in a publication for “Our Narrative” as part of a research assistantship.

Williams completed internships with CitiBank and JPMorgan Chase Bank and now works fulltime for JPMorgan as a member of its Corporate Analyst Development Program.

Senatus will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in business analytics and information systems with a concentration in cybersecurity in 2021. She has maintained a 4.0 GPA throughout her undergraduate career. She is a business honors student who is passionate about blazing trails for others.

She competed in USF’s annual Elevator Competition as a freshman and earned second place out of 200 students.

Senatus serves as a Student Government senator for the Muma College of Business, working on the Senate Policy Committee, Activity and Service Fee Recommendation Committee, Finance Committee and the Grants Committee.  She encourages students to continue paying their service forward to the USF community.

She served as the Tampa deputy financial officer for Student Government’s first consolidated term as part of OneUSF.  She also served on the Campus Allocation Funding Committee, which allocated more than $18 million Activity and Service Fee dollars to registered student organizations, student success departments and funding council committees.

“Through my work with the Senate,” she said, “I have learned the importance of working with others – despite not seeing eye-to-eye on issues – and the value of fairness and impartiality along with the joy of supporting the values I hold close to my heart.”

A resident of the invitation-only Bulls Business Community and part of the Business Honors Program, Senatus has worked on service projects for Habitat for Humanity. As a child, Habitat for Humanity extended its helping hand to her own family and she repays the organization by helping create welcome home gifts for families.

Alvim, a mass communications major who interned in the Muma College of Business in 2019, currently is editor-in-chief of The Oracle, the student newspaper. She has been instrumental in overseeing the process of content creation across five different sections of the publication and is responsible for conducting interviews and investigating breaking new stories.

While an intern in the Muma College of Business’ communications office, Alvim wrote stories and took photographs, providing content for the college’s website, newsletter and social media platforms.

Presented by the Division of Student Success, the Golden Bull Award recognizes impactful students who exemplify the mission, vision, values and spirit of the institution. Each year, up to 30 deserving Bulls can receive this award. This is one of the institution’s highest honors. The Tampa ceremony will take place virtually on Tuesday, April 20, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. eastern

Presented by the Student Success unit, The Golden Bull Award is one of USF's highest honors given annually in the spring semester to deserving undergraduate and graduate students who encompass the spirit of USF and have demonstrated its values. Recipients must exemplify exceptional leadership and service to the University and the community.

This year, 18 individuals received the award.