With hard work and assistance from scholarships, Humberto Velazquez graduated from UT’s top-ranked Supply Chain Management program with a job at International Paper.
Humberto Velazquez’s father, Alberto, was a migrant worker who supported the family by working in the United States while his family stayed behind in Mexico. When Velazquez was 14, his father was finally able to bring the family together in Memphis under green card status.
Alberto began managing the farm of Andy Taylor (’72), who also owns the investment firm Gerber/Taylor Associates with fellow UT alumnus Charles Gerber. Taylor told Velazquez about UT and all it had to offer. “Mr. Andy planted the seed of going to UT into me,” said Velazquez.
“He had a spark of tenacity in his eyes,” said Taylor, who became Velazquez’s mentor and recommended him for UT’s Business Education for Talented Students summer program, where he built a foundation for future business studies. An internship at Gerber/Taylor Associates solidified Velazquez’s interest in international finance.
UT was a key that gave me access to greater plans and opportunities.
– Humberto Velazquez
In 2013 Velazquez applied to UT and was accepted. “But once I looked at the tuition, I knew my family could not afford it.” That’s where the Tennessee Pledge scholarship came in. Created for academically qualified students from families with an income of $40,000 or less, the scholarship covers tuition, fees, room and board, and books, making a UT education possible for some 1,500 students.
Velazquez graduated in 2017 with a degree in supply chain management and got a job as a global supply chain associate at International Paper in Memphis. His brother, Abel, followed in his footsteps and is a senior accounting major at UT.
“UT was a key that gave me access to greater plans and opportunities,” says Velazquez. “My dad built and carried the dream until I could take hold and carry it for myself and my family.”
