UHCL ALUMNA FINDS PASSION FOR COMMUNITY SERVICE IN UNEXPECTED PLACE

Melissa Vela was working at a bank while she was attending UHCL, pursuing her Bachelor of Science in Business Management. She thought that people who worked in banking were accountants, financers or investors, but didn’t realize that banks also had business development departments that worked directly with the community until she met Associate Professor of Management Dina Abdelzaher.

Dr. Abdelzaher’s own commitment to community service had a profound impact on Vela. “She definitely inspired me as a role model,” she said. “I looked at her work in her career and her community service work, and it made me realize I needed to think big and think about my purpose.”

I learned from Dr. Dina to think big and to challenge myself,” she said. “I absolutely take her with me into my current role as Vice President, Houston Community and Business Development Manager at JP Morgan Chase.

A “switch” happened when Vela received a business development job at a credit union. “That role required me to get out in the community and that’s when I noted how rewarding it was to build relationships, and how natural that was for me,” she said. “When I first started at UHCL, I didn’t know these roles existed. I didn’t know banks had a community service piece, and that I could be the person who can take that position.”

She said she was hired because she knew the community and the bank recognized her strength. “I learned from Dr. Dina to think big and to challenge myself,” she said. “I absolutely take her with me into my current role as Vice President, Houston Community and Business Development Manager at JP Morgan Chase.”

Vela is a local ambassador for Chase and it’s her job to build and nurture relationships with key community leaders, nonprofit partners, and small businesses at the neighborhood level. She hosts financial health workshops, facilitates non-profit partnerships and offers community programming.

Vela graduated from UHCL in 2014 and said that she had begun her academic career at a different university, then transferred. “At UHCL, I got to have those important one-on-one conversations with my professors that I didn’t get before, and that’s what is special there,” she said. “I see my professors as so valuable. They take the time to guide you and be there for you. When you are at that age and trying to figure out life, it can be overwhelming, but professors like Dr. Dina made it that much easier to get the support I needed.”

In 2022, Vela was named the Marilyn S. Sims Leadership Service Award recipient at the UHCL Distinguished Alumni Celebration. “My time at UHCL prepared me with confidence and exposed me to how things work in corporate America,” she said. “I would not have gotten where I am if I had not gone to UHCL.”