TGEMBA Students Present India Global Social Services Projects
“The students traveled to India in order to meet personally with their clients and marginalized communities in March, as part of their global MBA program,” said Professor Linda Herkenhoff.
The first team, Team Kali, included Emilia D’Anzica, VP of Customer Engagement, WalkMe, Rachael Ford, Treasury Manager, CTP, Dusty Mapson, Manager of Northern California Operations for Ophthalmic Instruments, Inc., Devin Mccafferty, Entrepreneur, and Erika Nunez, Strategic Program Director at CBS Interactive. The student team studied Aahdhaar Card, the most widely accepted identification card for government supported social benefits and services in India, for the Don Bosco Research Center Social Services Identity Project. Their main goal is to understand the procedures and processes for obtaining an Aadhaar card, what technical solutions can drive the access and adoption of the card amongst the poor and marginalized individuals in India, who Don Bosco can partner with to scale the suggested solutions, and analyze if the solutions are economically viable. The main objective was to study and provide solutions that will support Aadhaar card access, and ultimately citizenry rights, for those who live below poverty line thresholds. Team Kali’s ultimate goal is to propose a scalable solution that can be reproduced by other organizations worldwide.
Team two, a consulting team consisting of Anita Engles, a career technologist, Sarah Grant, leader of digital marketing efforts for Bersin by Deloitte, Allen Kwan, Vice President, Business Development Manager for Swiss ReCorporate Solutions, Connie LaScola, Finance Manager at Genentech, Janekka Martin, the Northern California operational excellence specialist for United Parcel Services, and Rick Nystrom,Technology Manager for Simpson Strong-Tie. The student team worked with non-profit organization Akansksha, which provides free K-10 education, using a charter school approach, to low-income children living in the slums of Mumbai and Pune, in order to help them plan for the eventuality that there may be no government mandated CSR tax or cooperation to provide the facilities that house Akanksha schools. This assessment is based on Akanksha’s overarching challenge to attract and retain sustainable funding sources to fund “The School Project,” and reach their goal of expanding the number of schools to 26-30 by 2020.
Team three consisted of the students Al Archangel, an information technology professional, Lluvia Del Rio, an in-house auditor, Cecilia Markey, a Registered Nurse with the State of California, and Shane Pilgrim, Executive Art Director for Plural Music, Letty Quizon, a business and nonprofit management professional, and Janette Sutton, the CFO of Team San Jose. The students worked on the Dharma Bharathi project, for the Dharma Bharathi Mission, an Initiative of Navasrushti International Trust. Their consulting project worked with The Navshrushti International Trust which launched the second freedom struggle of India in order to help the country achieve economic, social, and moral freedoms not currently held. To achieve these, the Dharma Bharathi Mission (DBM) was launched with the objective of a hunger-free, caste-free and corruption-free India. The mission operates 26 schools, six centers, and nine libraries. Their main objective includes establishing a financial model for sustainability, which would allow their project to operate on a long term basis. The team worked to analyze the current infrastructure and future costs for expansion of the program, as well as discuss scaling of the business model for development in other locations, thereby creating more job and services at the base of the economic pyramid.
Saint Mary’s Trans-Global Executive MBA Program offers a rare opportunity to understand the core MBA disciplines while navigating cultural experiences first-hand and practicing responsible business on a global basis. Students, in addition to their core work visit places like Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, China, India, Kenya, New Zealand, Philippines, Rwanda, Spain, Thailand, Uganda, and Zanzibar, which exposes them to global issues, a component not available in basic MBA programs.