SCORE Houston marks 60th anniversary, highlights partnerships with HCC, University of Houston and Wallace Bank

SCORE Houston marked its 60th anniversary in a podcast segment where Jada Harris, chapter president of SCORE Houston, and guests from Houston City College, the University of Houston’s Bridal Labs and Wallace Bank described a network of free mentorship, training and referral services aimed at helping entrepreneurs start and grow businesses in the Houston area.

The partnership-centered discussion explained how SCORE’s volunteers and local partners help small-business owners build loan packages, learn practical tools such as QuickBooks, and connect to competitions and training. Maya De Novo, associate vice chancellor for entrepreneurship at Houston City College, said HCC and SCORE have collaborated since about 2015 on programs including the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses initiative and a Verizon Foundation–funded STEM camp for middle-school students. “We’ve probably touched close to 13,001 that have come through Houston Community College,” De Novo said when describing the program’s reach, a phrasing that suggests roughly 13,000 participants.

Why it matters: Houston’s entrepreneurship ecosystem is large—hosts cited a city population of “over 6,000,000” and “more than 600,000 small businesses”—and guests said coordinated mentorship and training can help more businesses move from idea to bank-ready plans and sales. Aziz Rahim, Sugar Land area president for Wallace Bank, described a practical link between mentoring and lending: “They help us prepare the package, for the customers, either if they’re…a seasoned business owner or…a new startup business owner.” Rahim said that support makes underwriting commercial and small-business loans easier for the bank.

What programs do this work: Liana Gonzalez Schulenberg, managing director of Bridal Labs at the University of Houston, said her summer accelerator focuses on student entrepreneurs and often leads participants to adopt business tools immediately—“some of them have immediately gone and purchased QuickBooks,” she said—and to use SCORE mentors for follow-up guidance. De Novo described a range of HCC offerings, including a patent academy coming in September, the Small Business Success Series core course, veteran-focused programming and about 21 student competitions that have produced some national recognition for student teams.

Volunteers, confidentiality and logistics: All three guests underscored that SCORE’s services are volunteer-driven and free. Jada Harris said the chapter has about 160 volunteers and is the second-largest SCORE chapter in the U.S. Rahim highlighted that many mentors are retired executives—CFOs, presidents and CEOs—who can offer experienced guidance at no charge, and both he and Harris emphasized that mentoring is confidential and that the bank and SCORE routinely exchange referrals.

Events and outreach: Speakers flagged timely opportunities for small businesses, including SCORE-hosted webinars to help companies prepare for the FIFA World Cup in Houston and other market-driven events. De Novo said Verizon funded two summer camps that teach middle-school students STEM skills—3D printing, virtual reality and drones—and noted that Verizon covered the program fee so families could participate.

Next steps and how to connect: The guests urged listeners to volunteer, serve as judges for student competitions, or seek mentoring through SCORE Houston. The episode closed with a practical call to action: visit scorehouston.org for more information and to sign up for mentorship or volunteer opportunities.

The podcast concluded with thanks to the guests and a reminder of SCORE Houston’s ongoing role in the city’s entrepreneurship ecosystem.