|
Only have a minute? Listen instead |
Always having a passion for business and helping others, Linda Ufland, UTRGV director of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Commercialization, said receiving the Ohtli Award from the Mexican government is validating to not only her, but the team she works with and the community she serves.
“For me, that was the biggest reward and validation, an award like this from the Mexican government with me being Hispanic and from Mexico as well,” she said.
The Ohtli Award, or Reconocimineto Ohtil, recognizes individuals who have empowered and positively affected the lives of Mexican nationals that live aboard. The award started in 1996 and the name of it comes from the Nahuatl word for road or path with the medal depicting an Aztec god cutting grass with a machete symbolizing opening a path for others.
Ufland received the Ohtli award during Mexican Independence celebration ceremonies on Sept. 12 in Brownsville.
“My dad always told me as a little girl, ‘You have to build your own path,’ which is so funny because when I got this award, it means path and I was like, oh my God, this was kind of meant to be or something,” Ufland said.
Honored at receiving the award, Ufland describes herself as a humble, behind the scenes kind of woman and said she was shocked when she first found out the Consulate of Mexico in Brownsville wanted to nominate her.
Ufland was nominated for her work advancing binational partnerships and regional economic growth with much of her career working with businesses and people on both sides of the border.
Receiving the news that she was selected for the award in August, she was surprised and humbly said it is an award to be shared and credited to the people that work with her and the community that she serves.
“Without them, there’s no work,” she said. “There’s no nothing, so for me, this was just validation that the work that we do matters and it’s impactful. Not just by me, but by the team that I work with, the people, the partners that we have, and of course the community that we serve.”
Born in the U.S, Ufland grew up in Matamoros and eventually went to Saint Joseph Academy in Brownsville and later would go on to University of Incarnate Word in San Antonio.
Obtaining an international business degree, Ufland would get her first experience working with Mexico and Latin America at the World Trade Center in San Antonio.
Eventually working in the private industry, a project at the Port of Brownsville brought her back to the Valley and she made her transition to higher education.
Working at legacy institution University of Texas at Brownsville with positions in the construction office and in the office of the provost, she would later join her current position at UTRGV in 2015.
“It’s been a journey,” Ufland said. “I’ve had different types of jobs that open a way for me to learn more about businesses and how all this works and that really has helped me in my position right now to really support our entrepreneurs and our small businesses. Either here regionally or internationally because it allows you to know more about the subject to serve others, and this job that I do right now, it’s a reward.”
At the Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Center, she and her team have helped entrepreneurs in the Valley and Mexico start and grow businesses.
“Working for UTRGV is an opportunity because we can keep our talent here, and that’s so important for us,” Ufland said. “That’s one of our values. We want to keep our talent, and our talent either is staying for jobs or staying to create their own opportunities as entrepreneurs and that’s amazing to see.”
Her passion for business started at an early age by growing up in a business-oriented household with her grandfather in agriculture and her dad in sales. Ufland said her dad would always say his daughter is going to be like me.
“I always knew it was going to be in some sort of business environment,” she said. “I love numbers, I was a nerd. … When I was in high school, I was taking business classes, so I knew that was my pathway. … I always felt that I wanted to do something to help others. I come from a family where they were always trying to help somebody else.
“My grandfather … he always had such a heart to help others, and I think that’s where it came that I wanted to do something in business, but I also wanted to do something to help other people do something.”
