When Aman Lalani decided to go to college, he was able to deliver some great news to his parents: he had received a full-ride scholarship from the University of Texas at San Antonio.
At the time, he knew he wanted to do something in the health care field, but he wasn’t sure what.
He started at UTSA as a nursing major. His plan was to transfer with an associate degree to a nursing program. But two years flew by, and when it was time to pick a new school, Lalani started having second thoughts. He wanted to learn more about his career options.
“I felt like such an ungrateful person because I was like, ‘I have two universities that said yes and I’m saying ‘no’ to both of them,’” Lalani, now 22, said. “So I sat there and I was like, ‘You know what? I’m not going to do nursing. … I’m going to stay all four years. I’m going to graduate with a public health diploma and if I really want to, I will go and do nursing afterward.’”
This curiosity to explore caused him to stumble into the UTSA’s Harvey E. Najim Center for Innovation and Career Advancement, which connected him to programs with hands-on experience he didn’t know he needed.
“Especially when I worked with Community First Health Plans, that really opened my eyes to how large the health care administration and health care management [opportunity is], and just the back side of health care looks like.
“And I was like, ‘This is so cool!’” Lalani said.
San Antonio philanthropist Harvey E. Najim, is a longtime contributor to UTSA and recently announced a $6 million gift for the center and for the Carlos Alvarez College of Business.
His support of UTSA student success initiatives that provide this type of real-world professional experience now surpasses $15 million, UTSA officials said.
“His generosity has touched nearly every corner of the university, from experiential learning and entrepreneurship to food security and athletics,” UTSA President Taylor Eighmy said in a news release. “We are deeply grateful for the care and commitment he continues to show our students, university and the broader San Antonio community.”
This latest gift aims to grow the Najim Center’s strategist consulting program, through which students like Lalani get paired with partnering organizations and companies for consulting projects that aim to solve a real-world problem.
These scholarships range between $500 to $3,350 per student based on the project and need. UTSA officials said this most recent gift will allow the university to triple its annual scholarship fund from $10,000 per year to $30,000 per year.
Najim’s contributions started in 2016 with the creation of the Harvey Najim Pathways Scholarship to help students transferring from Alamo Colleges to UTSA. In 2020 a $3 million gift led to the creation of the Najim Center, and in 2022 he donated $2 million to expand its reach to UTSA’s Downtown Campus.
For Lalani, this hands-on experience, despite not always being focused on health, was part of what he needed to shape a more informed career path, he said.
Before graduating this May with a bachelor’s degree in public health with a concentration in epidemiology and disease control, Lalani participated in consulting projects through the center with companies like Community First, Geekdom and Experian in Austin to learn what they do to solve real-life problems.
This summer, his last hurrah will be a trip to Yahoo in New York City.
“I think the biggest thing that kept bringing me back to the Najim Center was the quality of the programs,” Lalani said. “I feel like it was very well-organized, very well-managed, and it was very interesting because these opportunities are very rare to find.”
Aviana Miller, 22, is also part of the same summer program through the Najim Center and gearing up for the trip to New York City with Lalani. She is also a recent graduate who earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from UTSA and is moving on to start a masters program at St. Mary’s university.
The Najim Center programs brought her out of her shell, she said. After spending her first few years in college working two jobs to help pay for the costs, a friend recommended the center as a good option to earn experience and get paid. Today she wishes she had gotten involved sooner, she said.
“You have to collaborate a lot in this because we all have like different teams,” Miller said. “So lots of collaboration and teamwork and conflict resolution. It’s a lot basic skills or soft skills, but if you’re able to apply it to the rest of your life, then it shouldn’t be that difficult.”
The San Antonio Report partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
