As a result of the George Washington University's decision to restrict nonessential travel due to COVID-19, the mobility portion of GWSB’s spring and summer 2020 international and domestic experiential programs have been cancelled, including the Consulting Abroad Program (CAP), Short-Term Study Away Programs (STAPs), and the D.C.-based Business & Society Series.
Although travel will not occur, Global & Experiential Education (G&EE) has partnered with lead faculty to ensure all programs and their rich opportunities for student learning and network development will continue. As such, G&EE staff, faculty directors and global partners have been working together to ensure academic continuity for students by shifting to virtual formats for all impacted courses.
Programs that were scheduled to travel over spring break have been restructured to include additional virtual learning sessions throughout the remainder of the spring term. Programs that involved travel to meet with organizations partnering on project-based learning or conduct site-visits made arrangements to meet with contacts in the host destinations virtually including the STAP Arizona Business of Spring Training Baseball and the Business & Society Series course Think Tanks and Business Organizations. Impacted students have expressed gratitude regarding the swift shifts. Cristina Kling, GMBA ‘20 candidate shared the following regarding her experience participating in the spring break Business & SocietyThink Tanks and Business Organizations course taught by Professor Abdullah Akyuz:
"I absolutely appreciate the effort made by all parties to have this class switch to an online format. As a full-time student graduating May 2020, I relied heavily on taking this course to meet my credit requirement (and I also wanted to take it out of interest). That being said, given the extenuating circumstances that this pandemic has created, I feel that the professor did a great job in switching everything online."
First year Global MBA students participating in the 2020 CAP, a practicum sequence which provides students with faculty-mentored, live-client international consulting experience continue to work with their faculty directors and global partners in Germany, Singapore and South Africa. Instead of traveling abroad in early May, they will now deliver their final presentations virtually. Some of the Global Partners, including PwC’s Berlin team, will virtually host the students for business visits to share their experience responding to COVID-19.
All GWSB summer elective STAPs have been converted to online open enrollment courses listed publicly in the schedule of classes and will continue with the following format changes:
- Kazakhstan - Global Business Project: Promoting Nature and Cultural Tourism
This course will no longer focus tourism initiatives in Kazakhstan. Professor Seleni Matus has shifted the focus to a domestic partner. Students participating in this course will now assist the domestic partner on a real-life tourism consulting assignment studying the impact of COVID-19 and developing guidelines for recovery planning. - Sweden - Global Business Project: The Innovation Ecosystem and the Internationalization of High-Tech Firms
This course will continue to explore today’s high-tech start-ups in Sweden and students will work virtually with their global partners to identify strategic opportunities to enable them to successfully enter into or expand in the U.S. market. - Japan - Behind the Scenes of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games
This course will shift focus to allow students to study the impact of the global pandemic on the Olympic Games. Students will engage virtually with various stakeholders including the International Olympic Committee, the U.S. Olympic Committee, the Japan Olympic Committee, and NBC to understand the ramifications of rescheduling the Tokyo Olympics to 2021 due to COVID-19. - United Kingdom - Business and the State: Privatization and Public-Private Partnerships
This course will continue as planned for students to study public-private challenges and opportunities in the United States and United Kingdom. Students will engage virtually with various international consulting firms to explore the privatization and competition policies in other countries.
Students that are interested in participating in these courses are welcome to register through the open registration period, which closes on Sunday, May 17, 2020.