Viva Colombia

Viva Colo mbia!

Colo mbia!

What going global

looks like now During the trip to Colombia, Dean Peter >

Rodriguez visited Old

Town Cartagena and

met alumni working

in Bogota. So did the

students. He heard from

the Economic Counselor

at the U.S. embassy, and

was riveted by an historic

and geographic overview

from a Financial Times

correspondent. So were

the students. Open-air

restaurants, scuba diving

and coffee tasting were

fringe benefits to the

latest global experience

for MBAs at the

business school.

One of my expectations was that students would leave invested in Colombia, wanting to know more and having a much deeper understanding of all those things — economics, politics and society — than they could ever get in a classroom,” Dean Rodriguez said. “

The Colombia intersession abroad during winter break was a glimpse into what the new global programming looks like at Rice Business and what will be required for all MBA students beginning with the class of 2020.

Going forward, the school is committed to highlighting Houston as a global community and is able to do that by offering global experiences that require students to apply what they’re learning in unfamiliar contexts and cultures. “For students who want to work in a global market, understanding differences in cultures is critical if they want to succeed,” says Abbey Hartgrove, associate director, MBA Global Programs.

“Plus, employers value the diverse background that global experiences provide and list ‘strategic international understanding’ and ‘cross-cultural experience’ as two of the top four employee traits they seek.” >

• Alejandra Calad ’15, with Johnson and Johnson Medical, shared her experience of diving into a career with no prior health care experience and discussed the importance of keeping your options open.

The priority is to build on the success of previous international trips, as well as broaden the opportunity and deepen the impact for our students. The global experience is intended to combine education and networking to ulti mately lead to a transformational impact socially, culturally and professionally.

“In the end, Rice Business goal is for students to look back and say that their experience abroad made all the difference in their overall time here at Rice Business,” Hartgrove says.

Where we are now

By the fall, it will be required — and included in tuition — for Rice Business students from all MBA programs, including the new online MBA@Rice cohort, to engage in a global experience. This spring kicks off the first aca demic year students will travel by program and include in-country consulting projects with a variety of companies. The trip to Colombia assembled company visits in Bogota with a diverse set of industries and speakers with various knowledge of the country, its history and its potential for future business leaders.

While Rice Business has offered international trips for years, they’ve had a refresh. In Colombia, Dean Ro driguez says, “we had it just about right. And that’s a fine balance. That comes with a lot of experience, and I can tell that this trip evidenced a lot of that deep experience. I was very happy about that. It’s also the case that we drew a very good, diverse group of students.”

Students travel with their classmates for short-term, highly intensive educational opportunities that immerse them in the cultural and business practices of the country. “We want to differentiate ourselves from other business schools,” Hartgrove says. “We want to take the steps to make their experience even deeper.”

In Colombia, several of the speakers were Rice Business alumni: • Daniel Osorio ’14, Lamitech Construction and Operations, gave an overview of the growing laminate industry in Colombia and the opportunities it has provided him at the management level.

• Felipe Gallego ’15, team leader at Ecopetrol, shared insights into the future of oil and gas in the country as well as how Ecopetrol works alongside American oil and gas companies in country. What’s about to be different

While all incoming students will be required to take a global experience beginning next spring, the driving force that sets these trips apart from former trip structure is this experiential learning component.

“We will be partnering with more companies, com pleting consulting projects in a compressed setting and making connections with alumni from Rice and Rice Business,” Hargrove says.

For now, however, Hargrove’s plate is full with making these experiences a reality. “We’ve got four trips to follow this Colombia trip for this academic year,” she says. They need to be and will be even better. The EMBAs and Full-Time students travel to Brazil in April and May, separately. The MBAP Weekend cohort travel to Argentina in June, and the MBAP Evening travel to Chile in October.” While Hartgrove focuses on the final preparations for those global experiences she also wants to emphasize that beyond the built-in trips, the school wants to make other opportunities a flexible and attainable option for students. “We are also providing one-off opportunities for schedule reasons and for students who would like more than one global experience during their time at Rice.”

That vision for the future and the dream to make this experience more meaningful has shaped the dean’s expectations. He is looking to add non-profits and frontier markets, not just emerging markets, so students will have the opportunity to flex their expertise and help solve problems at a global level.

“Getting outside of the box, moving to another coun try, seeing things from a different perspective,” Rodriguez says. “It really helps you challenge your own internal assumptions and leave with a bigger, richer model.” u

JAMES ZHAO ‘15 NATIONAL PARKS TOUR (in his spare time)

This photo was taken at the Jiu Zhai Gou Valley National Park located in the northern region of Sichuan Province, China.