International Advisory Board offers new global opportunities for Broad students

At the Broad College of Business, we strive to foster a global mindset for our students. From education abroad to case competitions, we offer experiences for Broad Spartans to gather new perspectives and apply their learnings on a global scale.

This effort is brought to life through the collective strength and generosity of our alumni network, consisting of more than 80,000 business graduates. The college’s International Alumni Advisory Board launched its own initiative last year to provide unique opportunities for students to gain professional experiences beyond the traditional internship model.

“Engaging international alumni as strategic partners provides a key opportunity to foster global learning and mentorship opportunities,” Shinta Shintawati, the Broad College’s associate director for global education and outreach, said. “They can serve as role models, and students can benefit from alumni’s extensive background and experiences, which overall will contribute to the success of students’ employability.”

The Global Summer Projects — which ran from May to October — consisted of nine projects across five companies with a range of topics including fintech, autonomous driving and marketing analysis.

“This project gave me a great chance to explore media and entertainment market information and industry trends, especially in digital transformation and content creation,” Sabrina Liu, M.S. in Business Data Science and Analytics student, said. Liu, an international student from China, worked at i-CABLE through the Global Summer Projects. “It was a fantastic opportunity that allowed me to utilize my data analytical skills in both quantitative and qualitative aspects.”

Liu and 16 other current students took on the projects virtually, working alongside business professionals to find real-world solutions to problems.

“Discussion with my mentor was my favorite part about the project because it provided me a chance to ask critical questions related to my field,” Ky Chimrak, supply chain management senior, said. Chimrak, an international student from Thailand, worked on cloud computing with a focus on autonomous driving for Tencent.

The projects were donor-funded and made possible with the help of Harry Yuklea, visiting professor; Jing Wang (M.S. Physics ’95, MBA Finance ’98, Ph.D. Physics ’99), founder and CEO of FinTell Inc.; Linc Yuan (B.A. Marketing ’15), key account sales director at Tencent; Parth Gandhi (MBA ’95), founder and CIO of Bombay Capital; and Stephen Wong (B.A. Marketing ’96), CEO of Asia Miles.

“The students in the Broad Global Summer Projects produced quality research work on the credit bureaus and fintech industry in the United States,” said Wang, a member of the college’s International Alumni Advisory Board. “Through their work, FinTell was able to compare the U.S. and China credit systems and fintech and understand the differences of the development between the two countries. The research will eventually help FinTell make better strategic decisions.”

Through alumni engagement and new opportunities, the Global Summer Projects’ first year was a success, with a trajectory to continue to develop a global mindset for Broad Spartans.

“Framing our work from a DEI lens, it is important that we are committed to providing equitable access to resources where every Broad student (international and domestic) engages in meaningful experiences that can help them pursue lifelong career success,” Shintawati said. “The Global Summer Projects will help advance international business knowledge and intercultural competence of students through experiential learning opportunities. We hope to continue offering this as part of our main global career programs.”