Oracle Hosts The National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA)

NSHMBA members develop their careers with support from Oracle

When Sam Ulloa was growing up as a young farm worker in the Sacramento Valley, going to college—let alone one day graduating from Stanford Graduate School of Business one day—wasn't even a far-off dream. Truthfully, when he was a kid, Ulloa didn't even know it was a possibility. "You can only dream what you know and understand," he says.

Today, Ulloa not only holds an MBA and is building a start-up company in San Jose, but he also has helped found the San Jose Chapter of the National Society of Hispanic MBAs to support others in getting the exposure to the opportunities he's discovered. NSHMBA, an Oracle Community partner, serves twenty-nine chapters and 7,000 members nationwide, and gave more than $1 million in scholarships last year to Hispanic students pursuing MBAs.

"NSHMBA is a tremendous support group, and even more, as it provides a source for inspiration," Ulloa says. "NSHMBA helps you see your career possibilities, becoming your network and giving you a pool of mentors who can help guide your career."

Another key aspect of NSHMBA is that it connects members with Fortune 500 companies like Oracle. Dating back to 2002, Oracle has hosted several NSHMBA Professional Development Events at its headquarters, and at offices in cities such as Detroit. One recent event that Ulloa and thirty other members attended was, "Step In, Step Up or Step Out: Taking Your Career to the Next Level." This event was held in June 2006 in Redwood City. Oracle has also hosted more than 100 members for a similar event in Detroit. At Oracle-hosted NSHMBA events, members receive the chance to network and learn skills, ranging from how to improve their resumes, to how to communicate with management and plan their careers.

Oracle employees such as David Olivencia, Oracle Director of the Insight Program- TBU, are also long-time NSHMBA members. Olivencia helped the company forge its partnership with the organization, and was president of the Detroit chapter from 2005 to 2006.

"If you look at Oracle's support of diversity initiatives and the NSHMBA, it's refreshing and very rewarding to see that Oracle has been 110 percent supportive of everything I've done and asked for on behalf of NSHMBA," he says. "It helps knowing that you work for a company, which is aligned with the same goals that you're aligned with."

Olivencia also notes that NSHMBA brings valuable opportunities and people to Oracle. For instance, NSHMBA gives Oracle access to its resume database. "NSHMBA is becoming more and more important to us from a recruiting perspective. It makes sense for Oracle to develop these relationships—we want the best workforce because we're a great company."

Ed Hernandez, current Executive Vice President of the San Jose chapter of NSHMBA, agrees that the organization's partnership with Oracle is a win-win. "Oracle wants to have access to quality and diverse talent, so it's important to reach out to organizations like ours," he says. "Members are excited about going to these events at Oracle, to hear about the professional development aspect given by dynamic speakers."

In addition, Oracle's support of the NSHMBA "legitimizes the nonprofit," Ulloa says. "It shows that Oracle believes in the mission of the organization—Without partners like Oracle, NSMBA wouldn't be as successful."

Perhaps the most important outcome of Oracle's partnership with the NSHMBA is that talented people like Ulloa are exposed to new opportunities, which are catalysts for new career paths and dreams. "These events help attract new members," he says. "Because of these events, you can see yourself wanting to be a part of this company."