Leadership is in Lo’Shern Diaz’s blood.
Even though he graduated from the on-campus Master of Business Administration with a Concentration in Healthcare Administration program at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi only recently, he is already eyeing multiple career options.
“In every class I have been in, they set us up in groups,” Diaz said. “I always end up being the leader of the group. I want to get into the healthcare field and be an administrator. Once I get everything lined up, my ultimate goal is to be a neurosurgeon and open my own clinics across the world.”
With the master’s degree barely in the frame, Diaz is starting his own tutoring business and faith-based YouTube channel. He is also engaged to Shida Dusman, who encouraged him to stay in school and earn a graduate degree.
“I met her when I first moved to Corpus Christi to go to school,” he said. “She got her bachelor’s degree. Then, she moved and came back and started working on her master’s degree.
“When I finished my bachelor’s degree, I talked to her and one of my teachers. They said, ‘You might as well check out the master’s program.'”
Diaz worked extensively as a tutor during his time as an undergraduate. He was a lead tutor at TAMU-CC while earning a bachelor’s degree. His new company, Mutual Acceleration Through Heuristics Math, is taking a different approach.
“It helps people to not need a tutor, which sounds contradictory,” he said. “It also helps teach them to teach themselves and be more independent in their studying in any situation. I just printed up the cards. It’s something that’s been on my mind, but I have been so busy with school. It’s good to go now.
“My YouTube channel is called Lo’Shern’s Kitchen. We will be cooking some spiritual food for the soul and a lot of fun stuff. I figure it will build people’s faith and help them keep going.”
Island Life
Diaz’s family is from St. Thomas, United States Virgins Islands, but he was raised in Beeville, Texas. He graduated with an associate degree from Coastal Bend College, where he also worked as a tutor in 2006.
After working a series of summer internships in Pennsylvania (2005), Michigan (2006) and South Carolina (2007) to gain experience, Diaz came home to Texas to attend school after being accepted at TAMU-CC for an undergraduate program. He completed the Bachelor of Business Administration with a minor in marketing in 2017 while working as a lead tutor and holding down another job in retail.
“I was working full time while I was going to school, so it was extremely hard,” he said. “I didn’t do so great my first couple of semesters. Then, I finally qualified for financial aid and went straight through to graduate.”
He enrolled in the MBA program the following year and became a full-time student to concentrate on finishing quickly. MGMT 5320: Organizational Behavior and Theory, taught by Dr. Katherine Roberto, was his favorite course in the MBA with a Concentration in Healthcare Administration curriculum.
“That course and the capstone course gave me great insight into leadership,” Diaz said. “They also taught me how to lead properly, how to listen and how to make sure that everyone was incorporated in every project that we did. I pray that people see that on my resume.”
Blue Skies Ahead
Diaz is the first person in his immediate family to earn a master’s degree. He celebrated the accomplishment by walking in his second commencement ceremony at TAMU-CC.
“It was awesome,” he said. “My family and friends were excited. My mom, Kay Tyson, has pretty much been my rock. She was a single mom who raised me, my brother and my sister. She was happy about it. She couldn’t make it down for graduation, but I talk to her pretty much every day.”
Although Diaz and his fiancée have been engaged for several years, they are waiting to set a wedding date to make sure they are financially stable and, hopefully, running a successful tutoring business. There’s also a chance that he will be back at TAMU-CC to continue his academic journey.
“It’s up in the air now,” he said. “I need to talk to the dean and a couple of teachers who were coaching me and saying, ‘Hey, you have great presence. The way that you talk, people listen.’ They kind of inspired me to continue.”
Diaz knows that the MBA will help boost whichever career he ends up pursuing — doctor, entrepreneur, or both.
“Overall, the program gave me a lot of insight into running a business and how to look into a business and see everything that’s going on,” he said. “In the times that school seems the hardest, you have to keep going and keep striving. Whenever there’s information and anything that you need to learn, delve into it.”
Spoken like a true leader.
Learn about the TAMU-CC online MBA program with a Concentration in Healthcare Administration.
