Yee Hong Pua

Yee Hong Pua is a Class of 2026 Texas Honors Electrical and Computer Engineering and Business program (Texas ECB Honors) student from Frisco, Texas. As an active member of various on and off-campus communities, Yee Hong has strived to surround himself with inspiring peers and pay it forward to those who follow in his footsteps.

As a part of the inaugural Texas ECB Honors cohort, Yee Hong came into UT understanding very little about the program and engineering as a whole. As a result, the first semester was very challenging for Yee Hong, who sometimes finds himself struggling with coding until late at night. However, the tight-knit Texas ECB Honors cohort was a source of immense support. For instance, one night, a peer in Yee Hong’s course stayed up until 2 AM helping him debug his code. Yee Hong had no prior experience with coding before this class, so this selfless gesture was invaluable. Such experiences fostered a sense of camaraderie and collective effort, motivating Yee Hong to study harder and cherish the close bonds formed through shared academic challenges. He has found some of his closest friends in the Texas ECB Honors community, and he continues to be inspired by them.

After helping define what it means to be a part of Texas ECB Honors, Yee Hong played a key role in supporting future students in the program. Alongside others in his cohort, he established the Texas ECB Association to build a mutually uplifting community. In his own time, Yee Hong also shares personal experiences to help underclassmen navigate the double major.

Beyond his academic pursuit, Yee Hong is involved in many student organizations, including the Texas Product Engineering Organization (TPEO), the Undergraduate Management and Business Research Association (UMBRA), and the Student Engineering Council (SEC).

Additionally, Yee Hong found a community of passionate individuals in technology, design, and product management at TPEO. Inspired by these like-minded peers, Yee Hong considers this organization a cornerstone of his professional development. Through TPEO, he has not only deepened his knowledge of product management and tech but also developed his commitment to technology products.

Joining UMBRA, a student consulting organization, Yee Hong was surrounded by highly intelligent and experienced peers. This allowed him to push his limits and gain invaluable insights into soft skills ranging from conflict resolution to leadership. Committed to expanding the opportunity for learning about management consulting, Yee Hong worked as the Recruitment Director to increase outreach efforts, focusing particularly on individuals from diverse backgrounds and majors.

Finally, Yee Hong’s involvement in the Student Engineering Council (SEC) at the Cockrell School of Engineering is another testament to his dedication to building unifying communities. Yee Hong believes the SEC significantly enhances the Cockrell college experience. Besides personally meeting many great friends within the organization, he encouraged engineering students to make meaningful connections through SEC’s mission. As a member of the Academic Affairs Committee, Yee Hong works to improve relations between students and teaching faculty by facilitating connectivity and hosting activities. He is particularly proud of the Sip & Share event, where students chatted with and learned about female professors over a cup of boba. The event served to empower women in STEM, who are severely underrepresented in engineering.

Outside of UT, Yee Hong partakes in various endeavors for professional and personal growth. Yee Hong attended the Out for Undergrad (O4U) business conference, which aims to inspire LGBTQ+ students to pursue their ambitious careers. As O4U brings together like-minded LGBTQ+ students and professionals, Yee Hong was able to let down his guard and connect with others on a natural, personal level. Seeing so many high-achieving LGBTQ+ individuals in one room empowered Yee Hong to believe that it is possible to achieve success while being unapologetically himself.

Additionally, Yee Hong continues to expand his perspectives in his own time. As a cello player who participated in various competitions in high school, he is learning to reframe music as an activity for enjoyment rather than achievement. Now, Yee Hong picks up his instrument to take a break from academics, using it as a therapeutic guidance toward peace. Yee Hong also aspires to foster a deeper connection with his Chinese Malaysian family history. To do so, he consumes various forms of Mandarin media and often visits his family in Malaysia, which helps him relearn Chinese while staying up-to-date with recent trends and pop culture. Additionally, in UMBRA, Yee Hong worked with Wee’s Cozy Kitchen, a New York Times-featured Malaysian restaurant in Austin. He continues to help the owner with marketing and business strategy outside of UMBRA, leveraging the opportunity to simultaneously help out a small business while connecting with his Malaysian roots.

Lindsay Jade Feinstein

Lindsay Jade Feinstein is a Class of 2026 student majoring in the Canfield Business Honors Program (Canfield BHP), Plan II Honors, and Management Information Systems. Lindsay Jade is from Dallas, Texas. Currently on campus, she is involved in Texas Debate, Philanthropy Investment Team, and PlanTutoring. In her free time, Lindsay Jade enjoys reading and listening to music.

Debate has been one of the biggest parts of Lindsay Jade’s college experience. While she started debate back in high school, she only joined the Texas Debate team during her sophomore year. Lindsay Jade participates in Policy Debate, a highly research-intensive two-on-two competition. While this has been a time-consuming commitment, it is also incredibly fulfilling to see her in-depth research pay off in competitions. Additionally, Policy Debate is particularly intellectually stimulating for her, as it involves evaluating the cost and benefit of policies that are often too unrealistic for actual political implementation. This year, for example, she is exploring the best policy solutions for managing U.S. nuclear weapons. Ultimately, Lindsay Jade expresses that she stays in debate for the community. Traveling to various tournaments has also allowed Lindsay Jade to strengthen her connections on the team and reconnect with peers from other universities.

Many fun debate stories occur outside of competitions, including many planned social activities. However, Lindsay Jade’s favorite debate memory involves a spontaneous, humorous moment on a flight to her first tournament. While frantically typing and researching a sensitive topic for her competition, a lady next to her glanced at her screen concerningly, prompting Lindsay Jade to assure her by saying, “This is for debate!”

Thanks to her hard work and the team’s mentorship, Lindsay Jade has reached many successes in her specific competition, including winning the Mid-America Championship alongside her partner. The Texas Debate team has also achieved a significant milestone by reaching the octa-finals of the national championship.

Lindsay Jade’s biggest takeaway through debate is the confidence she gained. Initially soft-spoken and hesitant to share her ideas, the competitive spirit of debate motivated her to become more assertive and speak her mind. Finding a community of smart and talented women in the debate community was incredibly helpful for Lindsay Jade, providing mutual support and encouragement. Now, she also gives back to the debate community by coaching high school students, which is very empowering as she helps new, talented women enter the debate arena and build their confidence.

Besides Debate, another highlight of Lindsay Jade’s college journey is the Philanthropy Investment Team (PIT). Initially joining PIT as a freshman Junior Analyst, she has recently been selected as the President for the 2024-2025 school year. Lindsay Jade considers PIT to be one of the most unique and impactful student organizations an undergraduate student can be a part of, as she gets the opportunity to allocate over $100,000 in charitable donations. With the support of Undergraduate Securities Investment Team (USIT) alumni, she directly influences how the money is used, making a significant impact. This experience has been eye-opening, making her realize the extent of her ability to make a positive change, even early in her career. Through PIT, Lindsay has gained valuable finance skills and built strong relationships with USIT alumni and fellow PIT members. She is immensely grateful for this opportunity, which has become a defining part of her college experience.

Besides her extracurricular involvements, Lindsay Jade has also greatly enjoyed her academic endeavors at UT. She finds the combination of Canifield BHP and Plan II to be a perfect balance for her interests and academic goals. Canfield BHP supports her passion for business, while the diverse curriculum of Plan II supplements her interest in law. Through McCombs, she has taken advantage of two enriching study abroad opportunities, participating in a marketing Maymester program in Berlin last year and currently studying Business Law program in Edinburgh. In Plan II, she meets friends from various disciplines ranging from neuroscience to government. This diversity allows her to connect with some of the most passionate and intelligent people across the university, enriching her academic experience with a variety of perspectives. Together, these programs offer the ideal mix of career preparation and intellectual exploration.

While Lindsay Jade is not yet set on a specific future career path, she wants to focus on doing something impactful. Currently, she is looking into pursuing consulting, and in the long term, she hopes to study law. Regardless of her ultimate journey, she appreciates how her majors and extracurriculars have prepared her to explore her interests in an interdisciplinary way.

Chloe Jin

Chloe Jin is a Class of 2024 student majoring in Canfield Business Honors, Finance, and Plan II. Chloe’s interest in research started in high school, where she conducted and published research on Native American culture. When Chloe isn’t exploring her passion for research, you can find her on the water with UT’s sailing team.  

Chloe’s most recent research project, her Plan II graduation thesis, is focused on career and life satisfaction. Chloe wanted to learn more about how people’s passions and career interests aligned and how choosing between a passionate or a lucrative career affected people’s lifetime happiness.  

The research was specifically focused on individuals who graduated from Texas McCombs. Chloe recognizes the Canfield BHP alumni network for their assistance in her research. She was able to connect with alumni from the program and use them as her sample. Chloe noted that the alumni network was extremely supportive of her work and pointed her to other alumni who could be appropriate for her study.  

Through her research, Chloe found that everyone in her study was generally happy but had different personal definitions of happiness. She found that people who worked in a field that had elements of passion and practicality were the happiest. She found that happiness peaked when people met their own definition of a balance between passion and practicality, and that balance varies from person to person. Some participants of the study weighed passion significantly higher than practicality and were able to achieve their highest form of happiness. At the same time, others on the end of the spectrum highly favored practicality and were able to find happiness from their successes in that area.  

Chloe has some advice for students looking to conduct research in the future: “Having people around you who can support you is key. Getting to know and having good advisors is very important. I would recommend doing research on your professors and finding people who have a similar research background and can support you throughout your project.” When talking about how she found her research participants, Chloe stated, “Use your community to reach people, meet people at events, and use those connections as a resource.”   

Chloe would like to give a special shoutout to her advisors, Dr. Jordan Conwell and Dr. Kathleen Griesbach, and her research participants for making this project possible. She was honored to win the Plan II Model Thesis Award with this research project.

Anika Asher

Anika Asher is a Class of 2026 student double majoring in the Canfield Business Honors Program (Canfield BHP) and Math. Before coming to UT, Anika grew up in Allen, Texas, a part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Currently, Anika is involved with Alpha Delta Pi, Texas Spirits, and Consult Your Community. Ever since high school, Anika has prioritized pursuing diverse opportunities that fulfilled her academic, personal, and professional interests.

Anika’s journey with Chinese began in high school. However, when Anika took an opportunity to study Chinese in Taiwan on a fully-funded government scholarship, she became way more immersed in the language and culture. She took a gap year to participate in the program, spending the first half of the year taking virtual classes and the second half in Taiwan. Besides intensive classes and 1:1 tutoring, Anika emphasizes the benefit of learning a new language through casual conversations with local students. Immersed in Taiwanese culture, Anika also got to know more than the textbook version of Chinese and saw firsthand how people use the language in real life. The highlight of her lessons in Taiwan was Anika’s final presentation, where she reenacted the reality TV show, The Bachelor, in Chinese. In her skit, Anika got to be creative, rewriting the plots so that all the dates went poorly and the protagonist ultimately proposed to the host. To retain her Chinese skills, Anika still speaks Chinese with the friends she made in Taiwan whenever they call, and she plans to revisit Taiwan during the winter break of the 2024-2025 school year.

After coming to UT, Anika initially struggled with the transition from studying one subject in-depth to having a core curriculum with a wide breadth of subjects. Additionally, she wanted to pursue another subject for the intrinsic value of learning, so she took many classes in her freshman spring to find the right fit. Choosing between everything from International Relations to Chinese, Anika ultimately decided on Mathematics. Instead of comparing herself to peers in the major, Anika focuses on the intellectual pursuit of pure math, taking courses like Abstract Linear Algebra and challenging herself to “understand how math works without the assumptions of our reality.”

During the summer after her freshman year, Anika continued venturing to other corners of the world through the Canfield BHP Copenhagen study abroad program. After the program, Anika continued her European journey by solo traveling through Hamberg, Berlin, and Prague. Traveling by train and being alone, Anika grew comfortable with spending days without conversations, learning to enjoy contemplating by herself for extended periods. Still, her trip was filled with fulfilling personal connections, from an American vintage store owner in Prague to friends at a locally owned hostel in Berlin.

For the upcoming summer, Anika will collect another traveling experience under her belt by going to work at a restaurant near Yellowstone National Park. First heard about this opportunity from her Canfield BHP friend Quinton Mendoza, Anika sought this job as a way to explore beyond her comfort zone of city life by conquering the outdoors.

As Anika expanded her worldview through traveling and academia, she followed a similar journey of discovery to solidify her professional interest in consulting. While she initially felt uncertain, attending the Out for Undergrad (O4U) business conference during her freshman spring changed her perspective. At the New York-based conference, Anika heard from and networked with LGBTQ+ peers and corporate representatives. Seeing successful LGBTQ+ individuals who felt no pressure to hide themselves and conform to a professional business stereotype, Anika realized this is what she wants her future to look like as well. O4U also further developed Anika’s interest in consulting, as she finds passion and intellectual stimulation in its blend of research and practical application. Hoping to promote this transformative opportunity to other LGBTQ+ UT students with similar doubts, Anika became an O4U campus ambassador, helping to bring 10+ people to O4U this year.

Looking into her junior year, Anika is excited to be a Canfield BHP peer mentor. She is excited to give back to this program, as its flexibility has supported her academic interest, and the program’s cohort has continuously inspired Anika to do newer, cooler things. As a peer mentor, Anika is excited to help underclassmen develop the mindset to pursue opportunities out of genuine enjoyment, not peer pressure or competition.

John Mark Grant

John Mark Grant is a Class of 2024 student majoring in the Canfield Business Honors Program (Canfield BHP) and Finance, with two minors Management Information Systems and French. John Mark grew up in Tyler, Texas, a small town in East Texas, before coming to UT. Reflecting back as the current Undergraduate Business Council (UBC) President, John Mark believes UBC has been a pivotal part of his college experience.

The Undergraduate Business Council (UBC) at the McCombs School of Business unifies students and faculty to strengthen the UT community, leads initiatives for positive change, and represents student interests for an engaging campus life experience. John Mark began his journey in UBC when he was elected into the organization by the McCombs student body. He saw UBC as a place for tangible action, and he could “use this space to make sure [my peers’] voices are heard.”

Since joining the organization, John Mark has taken on a variety of leadership roles, beginning as the Faculty Relations Committee Chair in his sophomore year. In this role, he spearheaded initiatives like Faculty Relations Week, where students and faculty got to make meaningful connections outside the classroom. John Mark felt especially proud of how his peers wrote letters to express appreciation for their professors through the event.

In his junior year, John Mark served as the Community Service Chair to ensure McCombs students could serve where possible. However, the pinnacle of his UBC experience was his senior year, where John Mark led the organization as President. The role was a learning process as John Mark navigated through various uncertainties and turbulent times. Through it all, he remained committed to amplifying student voices and opinions through avenues such as engaging with faculty heads and deans. Ultimately, John Mark learned a lot about himself as he steered tough situations, all while becoming a better leader who listens and “turns people’s voices into action.”

Reflecting upon his tenure as President, John Mark is extremely proud of UBC’s significant accomplishments, everything from hosting the CEO of Citadel to taking students to visit company offices in New York. He also found fulfillment in the tight-knit personal connections in UBC, both with old friends and new members who joined the organization. These friendships spill over into his academic and professional life, allowing John Mark to feel a greater sense of belonging in Canfield BHP and the greater McCombs community. Additionally, John Mark takes pride in seeing the growth of new leaders within UBC, which is most evident in how they give back to the community.

To celebrate John Mark’s contribution to UBC, McCombs, and UT at large, he was recently recognized with the President of the Year award. This honor came from the Senate of College Councils, a student legislative body comprising of all campus college councils.

As someone who has contributed significantly to the McCombs community, John Mark shares invaluable advice on how to make an impact. He emphasizes the importance of making your voice heard, acknowledging that it is easy to get lost in the minutiae of college life and feel burnout. John Mark encourages individuals to empower themselves and rise up with their peers, recognizing the collective power in effectuating lasting change. Moreover, he stresses the significance of building a support system amongst peers and not hesitating to reach out to staff and faculty, as they genuinely want the best for students. Ultimately, John Mark underscores that everything starts with you — speaking up courageously is what sparks advocacy.

When asked to describe the Undergraduate Business Council in three words, John Mark took a moment to ponder, before finally settling on “empowering, communal, and gratifying.”