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Leavey School of Business Santa Clara University

Profiles

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Don Vu
Don Vu
2022-2023 Fellow
Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley - Fund Development Fellow

Management Information Systems Major
Home Town: San Jose, California 

Summary of your responsibilities in your fellowship role
For the fall quarter of my placement at the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley, I focused on many marketing projects for events such as The Hispanic Foundation Ball, where I created videos and artwork. As the winter quarter approached, my projects transitioned into data analysis projects such as visualizing the data from various campaigns and showcasing it to the team at HFSV. For the spring quarter, a huge focus was working with Taeya Ross, another fellow at HFSV, to create annual reports for both of our biggest programs: Latino Board Leadership Academy and Latinos In Technology Scholarship Initiative. Some other responsibilities throughout the year included working on other marketing projects and auditing data in Customer Relationship Management tools such as Salesforce, and ensuring the integrity of the data from donor reports.

In what ways are you making a positive contribution to your organization/department?
It was an amazing feeling working on projects that contributed to HFSV. Whether it be marketing projects or data analysis projects, seeing how your work directly impacts the surrounding community is a great experience. A project I enjoyed working on was collecting data and creating dashboards to showcase to the teams at HFSV. Another project I enjoyed working on was with another fellow at HFSV and LSB Student, Taeya Ross. I was glad that I was able to work on projects that would showcase valuable insights to the organization and working during the Hispanic Foundation Ball was an amazing experience. I enjoyed working on these different projects, where I could use content creation skills or working on automating a system to transfer data more efficiently.

What are 1-2 aspects of your Fellowship that have been most rewarding or helpful to you so far?
I am humbled to have the opportunity of attending the Hispanic Foundation Ball. It was a huge event and I’m glad there is a great night to celebrate the accomplishments of the Hispanic community. It was a pleasure to be able to help HFSV with the event and see how much support there is from people of all different backgrounds.

Secondly, working with the Hispanic community was one of the most rewarding aspects of the Fellowship. It was amazing to connect with a different culture and ever since interning at HFSV and they have always treated me like family. Being able to assist my team with different projects and spending time with them are memories I will always remember.

What would you recommend to LSB students who want to make a difference in the community?
I would recommend LSB students to connect with the community outside of campus. Connecting with different cultures, backgrounds and people is a humbling experience but it will remind us to be kind and respectful towards everyone. This program was not only such a great experience but the supervisors and the people you will connect with over the course of the year was a great feeling. Volunteering and helping out people will give you a feeling that nothing else can replicate.