Global – Page 4 – Global & Experiential Education

Experiential learning: Reflections on lessons from a foreign capital, and each other

olivia.francisOctober 12, 2022October 12, 2022

Featured in the above photo: The STAP UK 2022 group in front of Buckingham Palace.

Reflection by Sarah Fritz, MPP student.

There are few experiences as an adult where I feel completely safe and encouraged to ask questions. At work, I do my best to come across as competent and prepared, and in class as a public policy student, I strive to quietly excel without drawing attention to myself in the classroom. Touching down in London, I was expecting more of the same. However, throughout my week as a student in Business and State: Privatization and Public-Private Partnerships, I rediscovered the joy of learning and uncovered a confidence in my curiosity.

Throughout both my undergraduate and graduate career, I have often had trouble separating education from grades. I viewed class time as a necessary hurdle to a participation score and preferred to teach myself the material. But in London, the professor’s emphasis on group discussion, alongside my peers’ engagement, allowed for a rare combination of intellectual stimulation in a low-stakes environment. As a result, our unique group culture and authentic dialogue broadened my perspective of what learning should be.

Author, Sarah Fritz, at KPMG.

STAP UK participants engaged in discussion.

Without the pressure of an exam, I felt encouraged to genuinely interact with the presenters and drive the conversation in a direction that interested me. I subsequently learned more in one week in London than I have in months within a classroom. I found myself incentivized to research topics outside of class, fueled by a desire to meaningfully contribute to discussions and understand the perspectives of those around me.

Traveling and learning alongside students with diverse backgrounds and interests allowed class discussions to meander around a myriad of subtopics, enabling us to look at each public-private partnership through a different lens. I was consistently impressed with the knowledge of my peers and felt grateful to be in the room with them. I have heard it said, “if you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room”. This experience was a reminder that I was certainly in the right place.

While there were many interesting subjects discussed throughout our week in the UK, such as the National Health Service and the future of sustainable energy, the topic I found most beneficial to my interest in broadband policy was the concept of private equity investment in infrastructure. Throughout my research on municipally owned and operated networks, I have consistently run into the same issue: how does a rural municipality acquire the funding to build its own network? Peter Durante from the Macquarie Group provided a unique solution.

I had never considered the ability of the private sector to provide a financial cushion to municipalities experiencing high barriers to entry for building networks. Mr. Durante implored us to not count out the private sector when planning infrastructure projects, citing the ability of firms to innovate and provide data analysis alongside funding.

STAP UK participants in front of The Royal Logistics Corps Museum.

A view of Parliament.

Each speaker we encountered in London was genuinely passionate about their subject and had both an authentic interest and eagerness to learn from us too. For example, our conversation with Member of Parliament Carolyn Harris encouraged me to view menopause as both a complex women’s health and policy issue. Her knowledge of the subject was illuminating, but it was her passion for a solution that piqued my interest, and I deeply admired her desire to connect with the students in the room.

Our in-person discussions provided a pleasant reminder that articles and white papers can only take students so far. The opportunity to ask detailed questions of experts challenges us to be bold in our curiosity and induct our own knowledge into the conversation.

I am so grateful for my time in London with GW because I learned that remaining anonymous in the classroom was hindering my experience and devaluing my investment in education. This program gave me the tools to rediscover the confidence and curiosity within myself that had been buried by a desire to achieve. If you asked me before the trip what my metrics for success in school are, I would have said: “to get all As”. As a result of this trip, I would now answer “to both meaningfully contribute and listen to those around me…and make a few friends too”.

Consulting Abroad Program: Creating a Culture of Resiliency

floris_liu3May 6, 2020May 6, 2020

How do you hold yourself accountable? I write checklists and receive unfounded joy when checking a box off. I rely on systems to monitor and prioritize tasks whereas for others, it’s more passive and all about consistent routines and creating the right setting. But as memes about day pajamas and night pajamas or wearing blankets as pants circle the web, adjusting to the demands of 2020’s WFH lifestyle requires professionalism and self-discipline against distressing news. Finding the silver lining takes effort as we navigate a bizarre semester that puts our self-accountability to the test.

After two months into the stay-at-home order, I’ve been impressed by the speed at which colleagues and faculty have adapted to new technologies. As a Graduate Assistant for the Global MBA’s signature Consulting Abroad Project course, our student teams did not miss a beat working with clients in Germany, Singapore, and South Africa. Our clients may be scattered across the globe but their dedication as a Global Partner never wavered. The in-country travel was suspended yet rather than wallow in disappointment, our teams continued to refine their recommendations in the wake of the pandemic. With many online communication trainings available, our teams have had to keep their heads up and embrace the challenges required by virtual presentations.

The shift to all online meetings has created the expectation for all of us to be comfortable on a multitude of online platforms. Student rehearsal presentations were judged externally and provided students with best practices for online presenting: lighting, centering your face on the screen, smiling and projecting enthusiasm posed challenges different than those of presenting to a room. In group meetings, small talk and mic sharing play more critical roles in maintaining relationships when separated by physical distance. While some may prefer one mode over another, the experience is growing an important skill set that might have otherwise gone unnurtured. This experience forces everyone to adapt and keep their heads up.

A GW professor lent me Angela Duckworth’s book, Grit, last semester who writes, “One form of perseverance is the daily discipline of trying to do things better than we did yesterday.” We hold ourselves accountable to keep persevering and must honor the learning required by distanced relationships and virtual communication. Across my networks at GW, friends, colleagues and advisors help keep me accountable and satisfied. We share a collective accountability through frequent communication and scheduled FaceTime happy hours.

I am fortunate to be healthy and surrounded by friends and colleagues that maintain positivity and grit in this unprecedented challenge. As we all prepare to enter the global job market, our accountability is being put to the test and growing our virtual communication skills is important. Aim to do better than the day before and you might find yourself motivated to persevere. Now that I’ve written this, I can check another item off my list.

Drew Otto is a ‘20 Global MBA Candidate at The George Washington University School of Business.

CAP South Africa: Culture, Food, Business and Bonding

marielbaloJune 3, 2019February 25, 2020

Blog post by Calvin Sanders, GMBA '20

Our South African adventure has concluded after two full weeks of culture, food, business and bonding. I believe there was considerably more personal development for each individual on the trip than anybody of us expected. More on this later – first, a host of thank yous and acknowledgements are in order to those who made this CAP trip as successful and special as it was.

The first and biggest shout out goes to Bryan, Sarah, and the rest of the G&EE team that organized every component of the CAP experience. I have never experienced a two-week overseas program that went without a hitch, especially in a developing nation where things can be unpredictable. We had site visits at non-profits, government institutions, historical landmarks, tourist attractions, and everything in between. Every single restaurant we stopped at had already set a table for 20 dinner guests. The effort, energy, and passion of this team were visible throughout our time in-country.

Next is a thank you for Professor Akyuz and his Graduate Administrative Assistant , Tringa. Proessor Akyuz’s shared his intimate knowledge of the country and consulting processes with us during the semester in D.C., and while me made furious project improvements at the last minute in Cape Town. A special shout out to Tringa, who became a close friend of mine and of others over the course of the program.

Finally, I want to thank every one of my CAP South Africa classmates with whom I shared this experience over the last four months. I can say with confidence that we have all formed bonds that will stand the test of time, both personally and professionally.

So, what will I take away from over two weeks spent in South Africa? In some ways, being here has raised as many questions as it has answered. The country clearly stands apart from its other African counterparts in development and potential; the roads are mostly paved, the tap water is potable, and the entrepreneurial energy is apparent. Despite this, millions of South Africans live in informal metal and cinder-block structures. HIV remains widespread and corruption is pervasive. It will be fascinating to watch South Africa as time goes on because, if the country is governed well and the right economic decisions are made, we can expect the Rainbow nation to develop into a fully modern economy within a few decades.

Race is another fascinating subject in South Africa, perhaps because the racial dichotomy takes on an entirely different feeling than in the United States. Generally, race relations in South Africa seemed to lack the resentment that is pervasive in the United States. I believe this is because of lasting reconciliatory emotions from the Mandela years and Afrikaner acceptance that the Black African majority is benign to their presence. It seems like everybody wants the South African experiment to work. I, for one, am optimistic.

Thank you for following my experience with 15 other GMBA students as we completed our client engagements in Cape Town. Until next time!

CAP Hong Kong: The Big Day

marielbaloJune 3, 2019February 25, 2020

Blog post by Josh Lodestro, GMBA '20

Five months of work led up to just one hour of one day: final presentations to the client. Over the last five months, each team has been diligently working towards their final deliverable, a 30-minute presentation and final report. The CAP journey begins with meeting your client for the first time through a video call. The client presents the team with a business problem to research and develop solutions for by the end of the semester. Through extensive research and preparation, each team aims to provide three recommendations for the client. The bulk of the final presentation is justifying each recommendation.

As one can imagine, the final presentation in front of the client is both nerve-racking and exciting. Teams are nervous about whether their recommendations will work, but find relief knowing that months of hard work and dedication culminate in those 30 minutes. My team suggested several recommendations to improve brand consistency and pursue international expansion. Only through numerous primary research interviews, extensive secondary research on the market, and the help of our professor for estimating capital expenditure projects were we able to arrive at these recommendations. After about an hour of presenting and a question and answer session, we were done. What an exciting feeling to see your work come together in such an impactful way for the client!

For many of my classmates, and myself included, this was our first experience working with businesses in Asia. On one of our great informational meetings, Anny Kwok, a Partner at Heidrick & Struggles, said that Hong Kong is, “introductory Asia.” Even with this in mind, each team had to overcome some struggles with cultural differences in business. Learning how to navigate the cultural differences when conducting business in the East versus the West was the most significant takeaway for me from CAP. These experiences are what makes the GW Global MBA program genuinely global.

After all teams delivered their final presentations and sent the final reports to the clients, we had some time to continue enjoying the fantastic food in Hong Kong. This dinner was well deserved by all! The following day we were able to visit one of the most iconic structures in all of Hong Kong, Tian Tan Buddha (colloquially known as Big Buddha). Being able to experience some more of Hong Kong’s culture before heading home was the perfect cherry on top of a wonderful five-month experience.

It was a sad goodbye as we all gathered in the hotel lobby to head to the airport. Some students chose to continue to travel through Asia and some students were heading back to Washington, DC to start their summer internships. My family met me in China, where we will be spending a week experiencing a new country together before I head back home to start my summer internship. The skills learned in CAP will undoubtedly set up a summer of success for my classmates and me.