SHPE at Sam Houston State University — Founding a Chapter Built to Continue

Hispanic and minority students in STEM, engineering, business, and technology at Sam Houston State University needed stronger local community, clearer access to professional opportunity, and people to ask for guidance. As a first-generation, self-taught student, Jesus had experienced that gap himself.

Founder and President (May 2025 – May 2026), then Member and Leadership Transition Advisor (May 2026 – December 2026), supporting the new president before graduating December 2026.

• Hispanic and minority students in STEM, engineering, business, and technology at SHSU
• The executive board — 13 recruited leaders running chapter operations
• University administration and SHPE National — the approvals that made the chapter official
• Companies engaging with members, including Bechtel

1. 01Recognize the gap — community, opportunity, and guidance for Hispanic and minority students
2. 02Secure university and national approvals
3. 03Recruit members one by one
4. 04Build the executive board
5. 05Organize operations — workshops, service, fundraising, conferences, collaborations
6. 06Prepare and execute the leadership transition

• A 13-person executive board with organized operations rather than a single-leader structure
• Recurring programming: workshops, community service, fundraising, conferences, meetings, and collaborations
• AI-assisted workflows supporting fundraising, documents, event planning, community-service planning, and financial organization
• Documented handoff materials: documents, contacts, workflows, event guides, and lessons learned

• Recruit one by one — the chapter was built on individual conversations, not announcements
• Build the board before scaling the membership, so growth had structure to land on
• Treat the leadership transition as a deliverable, with the same documentation standards as a client project

Tools

• AI-assisted workflows for fundraising, documents, event planning, community-service planning, and financial organization
• Documents, contacts, workflows, and event guides organized for handoff

Human Checkpoints

• AI-assisted workflows supported fundraising, documents, event planning, community-service planning, and financial organization — organized and approved by the people running the chapter, never an autonomous system

• University and SHPE National approvals secured to establish the chapter
• Professional development programming: resume workshops, LinkedIn profile support, company connections at larger SHPE events
• Fundraising and planning that helped 10 members access a SHPE convention opportunity, with sponsor support reducing final ticket costs

• Starting from zero as a first-generation student building the kind of community he had needed himself
• Ensuring the chapter would not depend on its founder — addressed by organizing documents, contacts, workflows, event guides, and lessons for the next president

• Recruited 13 executive-board members
• Grew the chapter to more than 25 members
• Collaborative events reached more than 50 students
• Led fundraising and planning that helped 10 members access a SHPE convention opportunity, with additional sponsor support reducing final ticket costs.
• Led resume workshops, helped members create LinkedIn profiles, and connected students with companies including Bechtel

Executive-board members recruited

13

Chapter members

25+

Students reached at collaborative events

50+

Members supported for SHPE convention participation

10

“Starting the chapter mattered, but the final test was whether it could continue without me. Before stepping away, I organized the documents, contacts, workflows, event guides, and lessons I had built so the next president would not have to begin from zero.”

Continue supporting the new president through the transition period before graduating in December 2026, so the chapter's second year starts stronger than its first.