UNM Anderson School Students Compete in National HSI Battle of the Brains

October 24, 2024 - Megan Borders

Student team places in final top five

hsi-team-1-1.jpgEight students, seven from UNM Anderson School and one from the College of Arts and Sciences, represented UNM at the HSI Battle of the Brains student competition in Orlando, Fla., Oct. 2-5.

HSI Battle of the Brains is a national competition in its fourth year that helps Hispanic-Serving Institutions showcase the best and brightest Hispanic talent from colleges and universities across the country.

The competition is a diversity showcase, as it encourages each team to be composed of five to eight students, with 50% identifying as female and 75% as Hispanic. Additionally, 30% of the team members should be accounting majors, but organizers share that a successful team will include students from a multitude of academic backgrounds, including communications, computer science, data science/analytics, digital media, engineering, finance, information systems, marketing and mathematics.

The UNM team, advised by Anderson assistant professor Jonathan Jona, consisted of Sofia Ciantra, Jacobo Gonzalez, Santi Huggins, Tomas Jais, Angelica Montague, Sara Pezzaioli, Nicole Sanchez and Matias Santo, also team leader.

“The team members came from different Hispanic countries, bringing a wide range of perspectives and experiences,” said Jona. “They leveraged their diverse origin and academic backgrounds in strategic ways, resulting in a unified and innovative approach to problem-solving. I’m incredibly proud of this team and how they approached this competition.”

Eighteen teams with over 100 students competed for the top three prizes of academic scholarships. The UNM team progressed to the final round of qualifiers. In addition to the team's accomplishments, Gonzalez competed and won a $5,000 academic scholarship from eBay for computer science students. At the same time, Jais received a summer internship offer at Amazon in California because of his performance. The team's success and ability to compete on a national stage was made possible by the Priestly/Gardenswartz Experiential Learning program fund.

The competition is a 24-hour competition in which teams create viable, profitable and sustainable business models. All teams were judged on their analysis of the provided technology, their proposed solution, their presentation of the company, and their mastery of the subject during the question-and-answer portion of the presentation.

“As the team captain, I’m grateful for the educational and financial opportunities UNM has given me, which have helped me stay on track toward my career goals,” said Santo. “Representing Hispanic students like myself and knowing that UNM supports diversity means a lot. I am excited to help share UNM’s message and grow the community.”

More information on student experiential learning at Anderson