Get to know Chris Benavides, senior finance and accounting major, and President of Net Impact. Award-winning Net Impact provides members with hands-on experience at top quality, unique, sustainability projects on campus and along the IH 35 corridor. Net Impact is an organization of 60,000 global members including McCoy College’s gold chapter. Speakers at General Meetings bring first-hand knowledge on the 3P’s—people, planet and profit—in business including crowd funding and energy auditing innovators. Members learn through practice by becoming a project manager at one or more of the major projects. Projects are the backbone of the organization. Make a positive impact in the world participating in initiatives, such as, Up to Us (reducing the national debt Silver Award presented by President Clinton), Awake Aware America (blending technology and sustainability for “at promise” high school students recognized by President Obama), Circuit of the Americas (working with data collection and resource recovery at MOTO GP and FORMULA 1), Green Impact Campaign (auditing 54% of the buildings on campus saving the university $40,000) and other opportunities to lead and to learn.
Q: How will
your major and Net Impact help you reach your goals?
A: I have
been able to see different perspectives about how business should be done.
Being able to consider the impacts that decisions have, whether economic,
social, or environmental, will be valuable when making key decisions for a
business.
Q: What resource on campus do
you recommend for students to utilize?
A: I recommend students take
advantage of their advisors at McCoy and Career Services. I have visited with
my academic and career advisors many times. They have helped me through my
problems and answered all of my questions with knowledge and experience.
Q: What has been the most
meaningful part of your McCoy Experience?
A: Competing in the Up to Us
campaign to raise awareness of the national debt was, by far, the most
memorable and rewarding experience. My team and I competed against nearly 50
schools nationwide—including Yale, Berkley, Penn State, UT, Baylor, and Dartmouth—and
came in 2nd place. We reached over 1,800 students on campus, were featured on
the cover of a Net Impact article, and got the chance to travel to Minneapolis
and Miami. I even had the amazing opportunity to speak about the success of our
campaign in front of Chelsea Clinton and the CEO of Net Impact, Liz Maw. And,
on top of all that, the success of the campaign led me to receive the Texas
State BOKO Emerging Leader Award.
Q: What is your favorite part
about Net Impact?
A: What I like most about Net
Impact is the diversity. We are not like most other organizations in business
because we have all sorts of majors in our organization. Our group ranges from
international business to nursing, political science to environmental science,
and geography to mass communication. All sorts of minds and ideas come together
to discuss and solve issues that we share.
Q: What is something you wish
someone would’ve told you before you started your college journey?
A: I wish someone would have
told me that college is all about what you make it. If I had known that before
I started college, I think would have gotten involved much sooner. Thankfully,
my academic advisor encouraged me get involved and that has led to many amazing
opportunities.
Q: How can students join your
organization?
A: Students can join Net Impact
by coming to our first meeting of the semester on February 9th from 6:30 PM to
7:30 PM in McCoy #222, by contacting me at cib8@txstate.edu,
or speaking with our advisor, Dr. Hale, in McCoy #563.
To learn more, visit their Facebook page
