MBA Student Spotlight: Jose Pacheco (Honduras)
Jose Pacheco - Honduras
Rice-Business Full-Time MBA '24
Q&A with B-Speak! Director Christina Ball
Jose, tell us a little bit about yourself?
I am a doctor from Honduras and have worked in the research, clinical, and administrative areas of healthcare. I am passionate about creating teams with the mission of building great long-term relationships with our patients as well as helping them solve their most complex issues. I also believe in the importance of working towards the prevention of chronic diseases, through the employment of digital tools and providing educational resources to our clients. I volunteered at the Pro-Cancer Foundation in La Ceiba, Honduras, and also coached an amateur running team. I like spending time with my family and taking care of my mind, soul, and body.
Jose (second from left) with friends, in his beautiful Honduras
Why did you decide to pursue an MBA at Rice? What attracted you most to the program?
I decided to pursue an MBA at Rice for several reasons:
a) It's one of the top business programs in the U.S.,
b) It's situated in the energy capital of the world,
c) Rice has a rigorous academic curriculum with hands-on experience in real cases,
d) Rice-Business has values geared to the creation of leaders with a 360 degrees view of the world,
e) Its mission to give back to the community,
f) Because of this sense of unity that is ingrained into every student and faculty member.
What attracted me the most to this program was that everybody is rooting for your success. I had the chance to visit Rice in October 2021 for the DPW event, and I was shocked to see that every student that I met gave me a piece of advice on how to prepare my application and show the best of me. It's just incredible the culture that hovers around this program.
What did you like most about the Rice-Business MBA?
One of the things that I like most about Rice Business is that it allows students to gain practical insights on how to succeed in business by offering significant experiential learning opportunities. I am looking forward to the global opportunities at Rice which is a key objective for my MBA education. The global field experience at Rice would offer me an experiential learning opportunity to immerse myself in different business environments. More importantly, the community at Rice is very warm and engaging, and I knew that this was the type of environment that I could grow best in. I hope to engage with students from across the world in a global setting at Rice which would be essential for me to develop a global mindset.
What motivated you to sign up for B-Speak! English Coaching?
I wanted to improve in certain areas of my English skills, and I needed honest feedback on how to create stellar stories.
How has your English improved since you started working with your B-Speak! coach, Leslie? What do you enjoy most about the course and approach?
My speed had slowed down. I am able to express my views in a more clear way. I am more aware of the correct tenses to use and my storytelling abilities have increased. Her techniques and useful insights have helped me craft better answers to my behavioral interview questions.
How would you describe B-Speak! to a friend or fellow international student?
It's an excellent resource for a non-native speaker. But it also can help a native speaker develop other areas of which the person is not aware. Definitely is a resource that every student will take advantage of, regardless of their English-speaking capabilities. Speaking English is not only about pronouncing correctly every word, is also about the idioms, listening skills, knowing what expressions Americans don't like to hear and how to combine all these elements in an automatic response. All this, I have learned at B-Speak with my coach Leslie Lamers- she is amazing!
