When the Dean’s Council first met in the fall of 2008, its mission was clear: help enhance the global reputation of the Jindal School.

To do that, the council needed to create a school-wide identity and establish traditions. Fourteen years, eight OWLIE (Outstanding Worthy Leaders Involved Exceptionally) ceremonies and one unofficial owl mascot later, Senior Associate Dean Monica Powell said the Jindal School culture continues to change for the better

“In 2007, you’d walk in, and there would be nobody in the building,” she said. “Students would drive by, run in, go to class and leave. Now, you can be here on Sunday morning, and there are students everywhere.”

Marketing senior Troy Murray said he always sees students spending time in the building between classes and meetings. As a member of the Undergraduate Dean’s Council, he said there is an opportunity to connect with these students through internal events and collaborations with student organizations.

“JSOM is always continuing to find ways to grow in creating that camaraderie,” Murray said. “We want to try and give back, not only by volunteering and representing the school in that capacity but also reaching out to the organizations and clubs that are part of JSOM and seeing if there’s any way we can help.”

Murray was one of the hosts of the 8th annual OWLIE Award Ceremony this spring, an event that recognizes students, alumni, faculty, staff and businesses who make an effort to get involved and give back to the Jindal School. The event was held in person after two virtual ceremonies due to COVID-19.

“We get a chance to honor students,” Murray said. “It’s an incentive for students to meet new people, to become more involved in the organizations that they’re in, the classes that they’re a part of, or the councils they are in with the leadership positions.”

This year’s ceremony also featured the premiere of an original song and music video, ‘Home,’ a project the Graduate Dean’s Council members spent months completing.

Despite coming from different backgrounds, the feeling of home at JSOM is the message songwriter Shabnam Amini said she hoped to share in the lyrics.

“I hope they feel like they are not in an unknown place because it’s just so welcoming,” said Amini, a marketing graduate student. “I really hope that the video sets the tone for the years to come.”

In the music video, the word “home” is written in 10 different languages to connect with international audiences, Amini said. The video was also shown at JSOM orientation to welcome new students this fall.

“When these new freshmen or anyone sees Portuguese or Chinese and these other languages pop up, they just kind of feel like a spark of, ‘OK, they remembered me,’” she said.

“When these new freshmen or anyone sees Portuguese or Chinese and these other languages pop up, they just kind of feel like a spark of, ‘OK, they remembered me,’” she said.

If you build identity and you build culture, you build reputation . . . I think that is their legacy. – Senior Associate Dean Monica Powell

The video highlights two students: one boy and one girl from different parts of the world. Nisarga Karnam, who filmed and edited the video, said they included scenes representative of a typical international student experience, such as working a campus dining job or calling parents back home while riding the DART bus.

“The main idea was to show how students can consider JSOM as their second home and what their day-to-day life in JSOM will be like,” said Karnam, a management science graduate student.

Powell said the council’s most significant accomplishment has been creating this feeling of belonging at the Jindal School.