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Eller Partnerships Office Showcases Student Impact at Southern Arizona Leadership Council

Dec. 11, 2025
EPO and SALC

The Eller Partnerships Office was recently invited to present at the Southern Arizona Leadership Council meeting on November 14, highlighting the powerful collaboration between Eller students, faculty and local industry partners through the Immersion Learning Program. 

The presentation featured a distinguished panel of partners who shared their firsthand experiences working with Eller students on real-world business challenges: 

  • Doug Hubby, General Manager, Shamrock Foods Company 

  • Nicolas Jarrige, VP of R&D, NXP Semiconductors 

  • Himanshu Parikh, VP of Operations, Roche Tissue Diagnostics 

  • Caleb Adcock, VP and CFO, Tucson Electric Power 

The panelists spoke enthusiastically about their experiences, consistently praising the professionalism of Eller students, the quality of their work, and their innovative approach to problem-solving. "I was very, very surprised," said Adcock. "We have a lot of folks that sit in seats for a long time, being a public utility. So it's really a breath of fresh air to see these folks coming in, excited to learn, excited to think outside the box. And that's exactly what they did." 

Partners noted how student teams brought fresh perspectives to long-standing challenges and delivered results that often exceeded expectations. Parikh shared how the professionalism of the students impressed him throughout the project: "These students are really patient. They're trying to understand, because they're coming from purely academic background. And here they're trying to learn how the corporations work." 

The session underscored the vital role the Eller Partnerships Office plays as a bridge between the business community and the university, connecting companies with exceptional talent and innovative solutions while providing students with hands-on experience that prepares them to become tomorrow's business leaders. 

“We were proud to showcase the work of our faculty-student teams and our prtners at SALC meeting last month,” said Anastasiya Ghosh, associate dean, Partnerships,  
“These engagements are a win-win to our partners, our students and Southern Arizona community by building up workforce and transfer knowledge from University to industry and vice versa.”