2017 UG Commencement Program

32 H. W ayne H uizenga C ollege of B usiness and E ntrepreneurship Luz Andreina Davila Uzcategui , a double major in accounting and finance, is from Caracas, Venezuela. She has been a member of the Tau Sigma National Honor Society since 2013, the Alpha Chi National Honor Society since 2015, and the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society since 2012. Uzcategui completed a finance internship with the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in 2015, and in 2016, she served as an internal consultant and secretary for the Association of Latino Professionals for America. In 2016, Uzcategui competed in the 51st annual Career Development Conference hosted by Collegiate DECA and won second place in both the Accounting and Sales Management competitions. She has been on the Dean’s List for seven straight semesters and graduated with a 4.0 grade point average. Prior to attending NSU, Uzcategui was a mentor for incoming students at Broward College. From 2013 to 2016, she served as president and secretary for the NSU Accounting Club. She also served as the social outreach chair for the Economics and Finance Association (EFA) in 2016 and was a member of Collegiate DECA from 2015 to 2016. She helped organize two beach clean-up events for the EFA and participated in NSU’s CommunityFest. She has also volunteered at a children’s home, helped feed the homeless, and helped set up a 5K walk benefiting Women In Distress. Uzcategui also worked as an accounting tutor at NSU from 2015 to 2016, and is working full time for Kaufman Rossin as a Financial Services Assurance and Consulting staff member. She was selected out of 2,300 applicants from 94 universities to attend the Goldman Sachs Insight Day, in which students develop their financial services and interview skills by participating in workshops for business overviews, case studies, best in-class training, and networking opportunities. Ashley E. Nichols , a double major in business administration and marketing, is from Inverness, Florida. She worked with Kelly Concannon, Ph.D., on two book chapters, “Reflections on Gender from a Communication Point-of-View: Speaking up, Acting Out—Reflective Dialogue and the First Year-Year Writing Course,” and “Composing Feminist Interventions: Crafting Partnerships—Exploring Feminist Strategies for Community Literacy Projects.” She was a coxswain for the NSU Rowing Team from 2013 to 2014 and was an NSU Fellow from 2015 to 2016. She was on the Dean’s List for all seven of her semesters at NSU. Nichols participated in several community service and volunteer events, including the Women of Tomorrow mentorship program with the Whiddon Rodgers Education Center from 2015 to 2016, the Toys for Tots collection drive in December 2013 and 2014, the Violence in Words Youth Seminar in 2014, a Thanksgiving food drive in November 2013 and 2014, the Snyder Park Clean-Up, the Sallurulo Race for Champions Special Olympics event, the Broward YMCA Secret Woods Clean-up in 2014, the Jack and Jill Christmas Toy delivery in December 2013, and the John U. Lloyd Beach Clean-up in September 2013. Nichols participated in a sales internship for Aviation Parts and Trade Corporation, which then joined Wing Aviation, from 2015 to 2016. She is pursuing her M.B.A. in Management at NSU and hopes to graduate by 2018. She also plans to teach business to high school students and plans to be an adviser with Future Business Leaders of America. Nichols hopes to open a nonprofit organization to help youth at risk of dropping out or discontinuing their primary education.