Graduate Program Truly Helped Student Reach for the Stars

It was because of Professor Erika Matulich’s innovation and technology marketing class that graduate student Panayot Slavov ’11 said he found a job and was inspired to start his own company.

Slavov joins 430 other graduates for the December Commencement on Saturday, Dec. 17, at 10 a.m. in the Martinez Athletics Center.

“I’m amazed at the marketing program and really happy I chose UT,” said Slavov, who will graduate with a master’s in marketing.

The marketing research project Slavov was assigned involved providing marketing consultation for a chosen organization. Since his passion is in the aerospace field, he found an international company working with rockets and attended an Orlando conference as part of this research where he met a local company called 4Frontiers Corporation.

Tweet your congratulations for the 431 December graduates at #UTCommencement.

That company provides research to universities and centers, focusing on space education and entertainment. 4Frontiers offered Slavov a job on the spot, and he now serves as its business development manager for its suborbital program while finishing up his master’s degree.

“This program at UT is superior because of the caliber of professors and everything they represent – the way they teach, interact with the students and foster innovative thinking,” said Slavov.

Slavov came to UT in 2010 already with an MBA from Miami University in Ohio and a bachelor’s in economics from a university in his home country of Bulgaria. He held jobs and internships in the aerospace field and by last year decided he wanted to improve his marketing skills.

Now Slavov has secured a job in his field of interest and has started Balkan Technologies, a small-scale renewable energy company in Bulgaria, selling solar power to the government. He is capitalizing on the European Union’s mandate for each EU country to supply a minimum of 20 percent of its own energy needs from renewable sources by 2020.

“Working in a particular direction gives me strength,” said Slavov, excited with his post-graduation plans. “I picked the right university in the right state for my interests, with the right professors and content to put me on the right path.”

By the Numbers

429 Total graduates
30 Countries represented
62 Percent of graduates from Florida

Undergraduates
346 Total bachelor’s degree candidates
26 Magna cum laude (GPA 3.75 or higher, but less than 4.0)
35 Cum laude (GPA 3.5 or higher, but less than 3.75)
Top 3 most popular undergraduate majors in this class are accounting, communication and biology.

Graduate students
83 Total master’s candidates
6 With honors (GPA 3.9 or higher, but less than 4.0)
2 With highest honors (GPA 4.0)
44 MBAs awarded

Jamie Pilarczyk, Web Writer
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