Ten Howard University School of Business Global Trilateral MBA (GTMBA) students recently traveled to Pretoria, South Africa to convene with their GTMBA Program counterparts. Through the program’s trilateral partnership, students were given the opportunity to join their cohorts at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) at the University of Pretoria, where they provided consulting services such as competitive trend analysis, business process reengineering and risks assessments to businesses throughout South Africa. In developing the trilateral program, The District of Columbia’s Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development awarded a $100,000 grant to Howard University School of Business (HUSB), which has assisted with the development and implementation of the innovative global program for MBA students.

“The Global Trilateral MBA program is an innovative initiative to provide a unique and very special global education experience to MBA students interested in a global career,” said Dr. Barron Harvey, Dean of Howard University’s School of Business. GTMBA students participate in live cases where they are immersed in a pool of cultural and global diversity that equips them with the necessary knowledge and skills required to tackle business problems from a global perspective. “Participating students learn the business practices, problem solving techniques, business strategies, culture and norms of three countries while learning how to work in internationally diverse teams across several time zones. Priceless!”

The GTMBA Certificate program features Howard MBAs, as well as MBA students from the Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE) in China and University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science. “It’s been a whirlwind taking part in the Global Trilateral MBA but it’s been absolutely incredible,” said Lisa Franco, a South African 2nd year MBA student. “There has definitely been a lot of challenges and some expected, some completely unexpected. But, every single challenge has definitely been worth it because I feel already that just in the short time that we’ve been engaging globally, I’ve grown so much from an individual perspective and even in just how I engage with other individuals. So, I’m really, really excited to see how that plays out in the next modules of the Trilateral MBA.”

The cohort of Global Trilateral students will next meet May 2016 at the Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE) in Beijing, China, where they will present continuation of their findings from the conference in South Africa. The third and final semester will conclude this fall at Howard University. The MBA students from the partnering universities will convene in Washington, DC in October to attend a 2-day conference where they will present their final project summaries.

For more information about this program, contact Verna K. Supel, Director of MBA Programs at 202-806-1725 or vsupel@howard.edu.