On a chance visit to the University of St. Thomas campus, now graduating senior Tracy Tang did not realize her life would be changed by a simple invitation and the Chapel of St. Basil.
“I actually started at Houston Community [City] College,” she said, remembering a time when her future felt uncertain. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to go to college. I just knew I had to, so I started at HCC.”
That uncertainty followed her until a simple invitation changed everything. Her friend, a UST Presidential Ambassador and student named Gabriella Nguyen, was heading to the University of St. Thomas for a campus tour and asked Tang to come along.
“I was like, yeah sure.”
Tang still remembers the first time she stepped on campus and saw the glimmer of the golden dome.
“This is a great campus,” Tang remembered thinking. “I was struggling with my faith at this time and I remember walking through campus feeling calm and hope.”
Then, she saw the Chapel of St. Basil.
“When I saw the whole building, I literally was speechless,” she said. “When I looked inside, I was like, ‘Wow!’ It just captured me right away. I remember seeing the giant dome before when I was walking in Houston. You can see it from far away. I always wondered what it was and then I knew. It was really cool, kind of overwhelming.”
The moment felt bigger than simply a campus visit.
“Because I had seen the Chapel before and just happened to be on this tour, the whole experience almost felt like it was for me in a way,” Tang said. “I applied to UST that same day and thought, if God wants me here, this is where I want to be.”
Tang was accepted into UST and received the V.J. Guinan Presidential Scholarship, a four-year, full-ride opportunity awarded to incoming freshmen who excel academically and uphold the Catholic mission of UST. She said she knew it was meant to be.
The Journey at UST Begins
Three years later, Tang is preparing to graduate from the University of St. Thomas with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing and an Master Business Administration with a finance concentration—a dual-degree path called the BBA/MBA program through the Cameron School of Business offered to talented and disciplined students seeking to achieve an undergraduate and graduate degree at an accelerated pace. She also boasts a 3.8 GPA, is a part of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society and a part of the National Society of Leadership and Success Honor Society.
When asked which Basilian charism of goodness, discipline, knowledge and community best define her, Tang knew the answer immediately
“Oh, I definitely say discipline,” she said. “Doing a dual degree and having a part-time job on the side is challenging.”
Tang worked at KIPP Texas as a finance intern, auditing data for more than 2,500 vendors, reviewing transactions across 59 schools, and examining financial activity with precision for the local college-readiness Pre-K-12 school.
In summer 2024, she also interned with Accenture as a Business Analyst intern, which allowed her a snapshot into the fast-paced world of consulting. Her role focused on refined spreadsheets while enhancing data efficiency.
“I participated in a few client-facing meetings and learned the world of consulting, which was eye-opening because they’re always traveling, but I learned a lot.”
She gained one of her proudest achievements while at Accenture: winning the 2024 Accenture Skills to Succeed Pitch Competition. They were recognized for exceptional collaboration, innovation, and design-thinking proficiency.
“We were given a mock client and had to solve a problem this client was having,” she said. “My team and I originally were last place, but we listened to our feedback, adapted, and rethought our approach. We learned that it wasn’t just about presenting a good idea—it was how it was going to be carried out. We took a step further back… starting from the ground up.”
Instead of aiming for something flashy, they grounded their solution in real human needs and client attention. They wowed the judges and ended up winning the competition.
“We had to be really on top of our discipline,” she said. “I learned how to stay consistent and follow through, even when things get difficult."
Her growth wasn’t just technical—it was philosophical. When Tang first arrived at St. Thomas, she wasn’t sure what to expect from the University’s core curriculum.
“They’re like, you have to do three years of ethics,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, what is this’ I’ve never touched this topic in my life?”
But something shifted for her as she understood more.
“The Core Curriculum isn’t just about learning events at a surface level and memorizing facts” she said. “It was more like why things happened the way they did—the purpose and reasoning behind it. I’m a very logical person, so the more I learned about it, the deeper I got in my faith because it didn't just teach me to believe in God, it taught me to understand Him and how everything happens the way it does within God's reasoning. So that helped me a lot.”
One thinker, in particular, resonated with Tang. It just happened to be the University’s patron saint.
“We talk about St. Thomas Aquinas a lot and he wrote the Summa Theologiae where he debated himself, just kept going back and forth asking questions and answering them,” she said. “When I read it, I was like, ‘That's my line of thinking too!’ So I found it very inspirational.”
At UST Tang’s faith became something she deepened in understanding.
“Starting class with prayer opens up the room for God to be there,” she said.
That integration of faith and reason shaped how Tracy sees the world—especially in finance.
“The first thing we learned in my concentration was about finance ethics,” she said. “I read cases about people laundering money and engaging in all kinds of unethical activity. I struggled to understand how money could be used for so much good, yet also for so much harm. Through that, I developed a clearer sense of what’s right, what’s wrong, and how to make sound decisions even in gray areas. I want to be someone who uses that judgment to drive positive change.”
The Future Ahead
The first in her family to go to college, Tang is grateful for the support she received at UST—academically and financially. The experience is already shaping her family as her younger sister, now in high school, wants to follow in her footsteps.
“She hasn’t even spoken to any staff, but she wants to go here already,” Tang said. “The atmosphere of UST is so welcoming.”
For Tang, that sense of belonging extended to her identity as well. Fluent in Vietnamese, she found a strong cultural community on campus.
“There’s actually a really big Vietnamese population here,” she said. “It was really nice. It’s like a little piece of home.”
After graduation, Tang will begin a two-year rotational finance program with Hewlett Packard Enterprise, exploring different departments every six months.
“I like learning new things,” she said. “At HPE, they’re actually training me and they want new employees to get a full scope of the whole finance picture before just going into one area.”
Tang is ecstatic for the opportunity at HPE; it’s one she once hoped for—before she even knew where she might attend college. Now, a soon-to-be St. Thomas graduate, she cannot wait for the next chapter.
“I’m excited for the opportunities ahead and to be in a position to give back to my parents, who helped me get here,” she said. “I’m excited for where life is going to take me, where my faith is going to take me. I didn’t even know a Catholic college was a thing, but then I found St. Thomas and it almost felt like it was just for me.”