They may have been nearly 9,000 miles from Madison, but the traveling Wisconsin MBA students found themselves immersed in an activity that felt right at home: swapping ideas and best practices with other business professionals at a startup accelerator in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The session was just one among many in a schedule packed full of meetings with industry, government and nonprofit officials, tours of cultural landmarks, and dedicated time for group discussion and debriefing. It was also the first visit to Africa in the Wisconsin School of Business’s nearly decade-long history of global learning experiences.
The vision of Randall Dunham, professor emeritus of management and international business as well as faculty director of the Executive Global Learning Experiences at WSB, the global learning experience (GLE) offers Wisconsin Executive MBA and Wisconsin Evening MBA students ten days of immersion in countries with emerging economies. Past GLEs have included Peru, Brazil, India, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.