{"id":77454,"date":"2025-12-05T16:23:26","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T16:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/77454\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T16:23:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T16:23:26","slug":"sergio-baltazar-on-leadership-and-the-path-from-utep-to-cummins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/77454\/","title":{"rendered":"Sergio Baltazar on Leadership and the Path from UTEP to Cummins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n    by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.utep.edu\/business\/about\/hunt-insights\/articles\/2025\/mailto:?subject=your%20subject&amp;body=your%20body\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hunt Business Staff<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Sergio Baltazar Alumni Profile\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sergio-baltazar-alumni-profile.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Long before Sergio Baltazar (BBA \u201920, MBA \u201922) built a career at Cummins \u2014 working at the intersection of data, operations, and people \u2014 he was helping shape the student experience at UTEP.<\/p>\n<p>From leading Vision Mexico, serving as SGA President, and chairing the UTEP Green Fund, his foundational experiences in leadership informed his approach to work today.<\/p>\n<p>Those early experiences sparked a commitment to giving back.<\/p>\n<p>Today, he returns to UTEP, connecting with students and sharing his leadership experiences \u2014 reminding young professionals that success begins with community.<\/p>\n<p>Below, he reflects on the lessons that still guide him.<\/p>\n<p>Leadership Begins with Belonging<\/p>\n<p>Baltazar\u2019s first leadership lesson arrived early:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cServing as president of Vision Mexico taught me that leadership starts with belonging,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Becoming Student Body President pushed that lesson further.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cThat role showed me the value of difference. Leadership isn\u2019t about having the answers \u2014 it\u2019s about listening deeply and moving forward together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His work with the UTEP Green Fund added a new dimension: long-term thinking and shared governance.<\/p>\n<p>A Border Education<\/p>\n<p>For Baltazar, studying business on the border is a strategic advantage.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cUTEP prepares leaders in a market that mirrors the future of the U.S. \u2014 bilingual, culturally rich, global, entrepreneurial,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>It also shaped his sense of identity:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cAs more Hispanic and Latino students earn degrees, entire families rise. We redefine what it means to be American and Latino at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lessons That Still Matter<\/p>\n<p>Working with people, he said, remains the true art of leadership.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cNavigating viewpoints, building coalitions, creating shared wins \u2014 those muscles were built at UTEP and I use them daily.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He credits faculty and staff mentors across campus for helping him see potential he hadn\u2019t recognized.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cThey believed in me before I fully believed in myself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Early Career Clarity<\/p>\n<p>Like many first-generation students, Baltazar grew up believing that hard work alone moved you forward.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cSometimes hard work just pays off with\u2026 more work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>What changed his trajectory was learning to work strategically, set boundaries, and focus on sustainable growth.<\/p>\n<p>Purpose and Empathy<\/p>\n<p>Even in a data-driven field, he stays rooted in people.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u201cData reflects human behavior,\u201d he said. \u201cA simple \u2018how are you?\u2019 goes a long way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When work becomes chaotic, he anchors himself in what he can control: \u201cStructure brings calm.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Hunt Business Staff Long before Sergio Baltazar (BBA \u201920, MBA \u201922) built a career at Cummins \u2014&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-77454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}