The University of Texas at San Antonio is one of six institutions across the state to receive the 2025 Texas Higher Education Star Award.
Presented by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the award recognizes colleges and universities for their commitment to promoting student success and career development through workforce-aligned programming.
UT San Antonio is receiving the 2025 Star Award for its Najim Strategist Program, a hands-on, project-based learning opportunity where students work as paid consultants for local companies. Students of all majors and academic levels work collaboratively in teams, conducting research and developing practical solutions to business challenges their partner organizations are facing.
Created in 2021 by the university’s Najim Center for Innovation and Career Advancement, the program has become one of the center’s most popular offerings, with over 300 student participants to date.
“The strategist program truly embodies what experiential learning is all about,” said Ginnifer Cié Gee, associate vice provost for career-engaged learning at UT San Antonio. “It provides students with a transformative opportunity where they can gain practical, professional work experience and learn skills like leadership, teamwork and critical thinking. These are essential skills that will help them thrive both academically and in their future careers.”
Advancing career readiness
The Najim Center has partnered with over 30 organizations in San Antonio to host student strategists since the program began, including Community First Health Plans, the Alameda Theater, Geekdom and The Pearl. From developing marketing strategies to help grow a company’s customer base, to streamlining business processes and systems, the program allows students to tackle real-world projects that can have a tangible impact in the community.
“Our robust community partnerships help this program flourish, and our team has worked diligently to grow these relationships over the last few years,” said Erica Clark, director of innovation and entrepreneurship for the Najim Center. “The students are gaining exposure to different types of industries and career paths right here in San Antonio, and the work they put into these projects each semester continues to exceed our expectations.”
The Najim Center has built on this momentum in recent semesters, bringing its strategist program to the university’s Carlos Alvarez College of Business and the Honors College, and extending the program to first-year students in the LEAD Summer Academy. The center also plans to introduce an undergraduate research track to the strategist program in spring 2026.
The board will formally award UT San Antonio and the Najim Center at its annual conference in Austin in December; it will be the second time UT San Antonio has received the Star Award in recent years. The university was recognized in 2019 for its efforts to boost student persistence, retention and success through personalized academic advising.
The Najim Center was established in 2020 by local entrepreneur and philanthropist Harvey Najim with a $3 million gift to UT San Antonio. Its goal is to create a space where students can access resources for career exploration and discover experiential learning opportunities.
As part of the university’s Career-Engaged Learning division, the Najim Center has played a key role in supporting the institution’s Classroom to Career initiative, which encourages hands-on, career-focused learning opportunities for students.