Spotlight: Ana Parra Vera MSBA 20

M.S. in Business Analytics student Ana Parra Vera shares her experience as a student leader in the San Francisco program, and her virtual "Zoom"ba for her classmates to keep fit.

Why the UC Davis MSBA program in San Francisco?

The parts of the program that we were able to enjoy, The City, they were incredible. The networking opportunities that I was able to take advantage of that, it even helped me now during the quarantine times. 

The number two thing for me would be the practicum project because it allowed us to work on a tangible experience working with a real company, it's helping them with real issues and it also helps us a lot with interviews.

What leadership activities are you involved in?

I am also part of the Dean's Student Advisory Council for our MSBA program. So DSAC is the leadership position that allows students to be that voice between the administration and the dean, basically like the whole department as well as the students, so we are kind of that bridge.

And then I'm also one of the Executive Assistants. I work with MSBA administrators and I help them with admissions. So if potential students or recently enrolled students have any questions they can reach out to me and the other EAs.

Which professor has stood out to you while learning online?

Pantelis Loupos. He made classes interesting because he broke them into asynchronous lessons and then synchronous lessons. So the asynchronous are basically, Videos that he posted and then we were able to see that and be engaged in our own time, in our own way. And then we had the live sessions on Fridays where we went over questions that we had over the previous material, then the actual lecture and then had exercises in groups. 

So it was super nice to have something more interactive like just watch a video on your own time and then come back to class and be ready for it.

How are you making an impact?

I'm doing Zumba sessions three times a week. It has been super fun because I like dancing, I like Latin music. It comes from my Hispanic background. I encouraged to my friends when I was back in school to come and dance with me. I did sessions when we were in the MSBA program in-person.

So it's been super fun because it's just a little break from the day where we get to be active. We release some endorphins, we feel better about ourselves. It's a nice break from the other million things that are going on now.