“This was by far my best Miami Herbert Business School experience,” a beaming Veronica Rubio declared following her recent trip to Costa Rica with the Hyperion Council, a Miami Herbert group dedicated to performing pro bono work.
Rubio, 20, who’s pursuing a B.S.B.A. in finance and quantitative economics and who just finished her sophomore year, traveled with three other Hyperion Council students and a faculty advisor, Esteban Petruzzello, associate professor of professional practice with the Department of Economics.
The quintet trekked to rural Turrialba, Costa Rica, a small town “in the mountains, in the middle of nowhere,” said Rubio. Over the course of five days, “we went to a local elementary school where we taught the students different business concepts. In the afternoons, we gave workshops to female entrepreneurs that had businesses ranging from having an idea to idea, to having several years of experience.”
As was the case with the Hyperion Council’s trip to the Dominican Republic last year, the Costa Rica trip was partially facilitated by Peacework, a U.S. nonprofit seeking equitable and sustainable global development.
A Peacework representative preselected about 12 women entrepreneurs and several elementary school students for the Hyperion Council cohorts to work with in Costa Rica, said Amanda Galante, 20, who also journeyed to Turrialba.
“I worked with one woman who had an ice cream business, but she didn’t know why she wasn’t making money,” said Galante, a Foote Fellow honor student about to enter her junior year in pursuit of a B.B.A in legal studies and political economics. “So, we kind of restructured her pricing and her budgeting and she was able to make more money.”
Within weeks of going to Costa Rica as a Hyperion Council member, Paul Lohmann graduated from the University of Miami with degrees in business technology and psychology. Lohmann views the Central America trip as one of his most impactful Miami Herbert accomplishments.
“We tried to focus on four main areas,” said Lohmann, 22, who currently works for American Express in New York City. “There was personal finance, business financials, marketing, and overall operations. We chose those because we thought they would have the most significant impact without being too overwhelming.
“The biggest thing that I recommend about Hyperion is there are few opportunities in college where you get to do something truly practical,” Lohmann said. “Hyperion is such a small, close-knit group that you have this tremendous opportunity to work with local businesses—to work with entrepreneurs in every facet of their professional life.”
