SAINT MARY’S UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
Sharing the Saint Mary’s experience 16
Giving time and financial support are common ways people give back to their alma maters. Saint Mary’s graduate Veronica Hiza M’15, M’17 does just that by serving as a member of the school’s alumni board. But she gives back in another way as well. The double master’s graduate is a cheerleader for the university and goes out of her way to spread the message of her experience at Saint Mary’s. And that has paid off! Hiza has seen her husband and son, David Hiza Sr. ’16, M’17 and David Hiza Jr. ’17, M’21, graduate with master’s degrees from Saint Mary’s. Her daughter, Natalia Hiza, is currently pursuing an M.S. in Business Intelligence and Data Veronica Hiza Analytics. M’15, M’17 And the list of family members who have attended Saint Mary’s doesn’t end there. “I can probably name eight to 10 other family members,” Hiza chuckled. “It’s because I talk about Saint Mary’s, I like to advertise it. I’m pro-education as much as I can be.” Before choosing Saint Mary’s for two master’s degrees, Hiza had been working full time in project management. Knowing she needed to take the next step in her career, Hiza decided to take the Project Management Professional certification exam. Having known multiple people who had to take the exam more than once, Hiza decided going back to school would be one of the best ways to prepare. After receiving her M.S. in Project Management, she felt the call to continue learning, so she enrolled once again at Saint Mary’s in the M.S. in Information Technology Management program. Hiza says the most beneficial part of attending Saint Mary’s was learning from professionals who work in the same field as her. “It was like being taught by a colleague,” Hiza said. “It just made it so conversational. It was always a nice opportunity to discuss real-life things and things that were happening in my job.” After earning two graduate degrees from Saint Mary’s, she has seen the payoff: her ability to learn concepts that were included in the Project Management Professional certification process helped her through the exam. She’s also seen the real-world
concepts taught in the classroom aid her in her job with Minnesota IT Services. Not long after graduating, she was contacted about serving on the alumni board. Hiza was torn at the time because she had also been asked to serve on the alumni board of her undergraduate alma mater.
