GW Students Attend the Stern Global Summit!

As part of its outreach activities, GW-CIBER has recently facilitated the participation to the 2006 Stern Summit on Global Business of seven GW students.

The Summit is organized by New York University’s Stern School of Business. Each year this leading undergraduate business conference features lively discussions of timely global and domestic business topics. This year's theme was The Disappearing Third World: A Paradox of Growth and examined the increasing divergence between developing nations that have flourished economically in recent years, and those that have failed to reap the benefits of globalization.

For more information on the 2006 Summit, please go to:
http://w4.stern.nyu.edu/uc/currentstudents/studentlife.cfm?doc_id=5039

Here are a few thoughts on the 2006 Global Summit from the GW students who participated to the event :


“The 2006 Global Summit at Stern, NYU was a great experience! I enjoyed the panel discussions, as well as the slightly informal, student-oriented style of the event that encouraged students and panel members to interact.”

Andrea Baron, Bachelor of Applied Business Administration,
Concentration: Marketing, Spring 2007

“The summit was a very thought-provoking and beneficial experience. I would definitely recommend it to other students who are interested in issues of global business.”

Eleanor Collins, BBA,
Concentration: Accounting and International Business, Spring 2007

“It is such a great experience to be around so many driven students, and to learn about successful people’s life experiences!”

Tsz Ying Guan, BA,
Finance Major

“ The most interesting aspects of the “Entrepreneurship and Finance in Developing Nations” panel came from the discussion on microfinance, which highlighted the void in the debt/equity financing spectrum for businesses that are small/medium in scale. Currently in Africa there is a gap between people that have been helped to reach sustenance levels through microfinance tools and the means available to large corporations funded through an equity system. One of the speakers stated that there is a large opportunity for companies interested in providing financing for African entrepreneurs (i.e., private equity). Through this type of ventures, one could greatly help the impoverished people of a region by providing needed jobs and services, while embracing the opportunity to make a good return on investment.”

Matthew Lacer, BBA,
Concentration: International Business and Finance

“We were lucky to hear Ahmad Kamal’s thoughts on how restricted “Free Trade” in today’s world truly is. He lectured about how subsidies and certain provisions in free trade agreements with the EU and US hurt Pakistan and prevent the country from becoming a truly global competitor. Truly free trade, he argued, would allow the Pakistani Economy to grow enough to allow the country to enter the group of economic developed countries. In addition, he used hyperbole, humor and commonsense to argue various nuances and statistics that helped validating his argument. The remainder of the discussion analyzed the role of governments in fostering the economic development of their countries. In the end, it was very interesting to hear so many different perspectives on free trade and subsidies, tariffs and free trade zones.

Based on my personal experience, I would highly recommend the Stern Global Summit not only to all my business major friends, but also to all International Affair students.”

David Nathan, BBA,
Concentration: International Business & Finance,
Minor in Philosophy & Statistics

“As an IAFF major, I attended the conference not only hoping to learn a great deal about business in the developing world, but also about different conceptual models for promoting development. While each presentation was beneficial and informative, I felt that the final presentation on the political economy was the best panel of the conference.”

Matthew Southard, BA, International Affairs,
Class of 2007

“The NYU Stern Summit on Global Business was very interesting for me to see. As an International Affairs student concentrating in economics, I found this summit applicable to my studies and future ideas for careers. Along with that the technical aspect of the summit, there were fun New York activities that were part of the program as well.”

Chris Stavrou, BA, International Affairs,
Concentration: Economics, May 2007