Aiding the Professional Development of African Students on the UConn MBA

By Pavel Kantorek Updated May 03, 2016

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Introduction
Professional development through the MBA
The UConn MBA experience
Business skills for life

Aiding the Professional Development of African Students on the UConn MBA main image

The University of Connecticut (UConn) is offering MBA scholarships targeted at exceptional African students in order to aid their professional development. Applicants with good GMAT scores will see net costs reduced to US$8,000-10,000, while one standout student will be eligible for a graduate assistantship. The latter of these MBA scholarships sees the UConn MBA student assigned a member of faculty from the school of business to help with course research and grading, working for a total of 150 hours over a 15 week semester, in return for a full tuition waiver, a stipend, as well as health and dental care benefits.

Elizabeth Vaah (pictured below), from Ghana, currently employed by TD Bank in Canada, is a graduate of the UConn MBA. After a change in jobs that made her feel her career was stagnating, she decided that an MBA employing a participatory Western model is what she needed to aid her professional development.

“The UConn MBA first caught my attention when I read a news item about the edgelab, a joint GE/UConn project that enabled students to work together on real life business issues of interest to GE. I read testimonies from current and past students and thought this is where I’d like to do my MBA.”

She applied successfully, and got in, albeit without the offer of tuition assistance – that is, until she wrote to the school’s admissions department and was pleasantly surprised to then be offered one of the school’s MBA scholarships in the form of a graduate assistantship as part of the school’s drive to attract talented African students.

Professional development through the MBA

Tunde Tella, head of marketing at International Energy Service Limited in Nigeria – an organization partnered with the likes of Siemens and GE – also looked to the West when considering his professional development. “I had lots of options in terms of where to go because I had a good GMAT score, but after I got to know about UConn’s great experiential learning programs and study environment, it was easy to make up my mind.” He adds that he was enthused about working the program director, Lane Barrow.

He feels the MBA furnished him with business skills that have served him well subsequently. “I strengthened my finance, marketing and strategy skills, which has helped me succeed in my career. Also, because of the great emphasis on networking during my MBA, I have found it easier to sell products and services.”

Of the business skills he gained in this department, he thinks the most important is an ability to understand and appreciate diversity. “On a daily basis I deal with people from different countries and cultures; I have been able to do this better because of what I was taught on my MBA program.”

Vaah also feels that the business skills she gained aided her in her professional development: “With the Uconn MBA, the edgelab experience on top of my background, I had no difficulty securing a job after school. I worked in visible positions with two Fortune 500 companies in the US (PwC and UBS) prior to moving to Ghana in 2009. This rich work experience easily landed me a job with the World Bank in Ghana even before I arrived. When I had to relocate to Canada for personal reasons, I very easily secured my current job with TD Bank without any problems, compared to the experiences of other immigrants to Canada. The MBA opened doors for me while the teamwork and technical business skills I acquired through the many group and experiential learning opportunities the UConn MBA offered enabled me to work better in teams.”

She received, she adds, her company’s ‘Principles in Practice’ award for the first quarter of 2014, by way of evidence of her progress here.

The UConn MBA experience

So, the outcomes are clear now – but how did the African students find the UConn MBA at the time? Vaah describes the experience as exciting rather than challenging.

“I was expecting the class to be participatory and students to be assertive. However, what I saw in school was more than I expected. We spoke our mind and shared ideas freely. In fact we were encouraged to voice our different views, sometimes resulting in very animated discussions. Students actually earned better marks for bringing up alternate views and looking at concepts and issues from different perspectives. I learnt to be more tolerant of different views and also to be more assertive, attributes that have proven really useful in other aspects of my life.”

She lived on-campus, close to where the UConn MBA was taught. “There were quite a number of African students in other disciplines on campus. The Storrs campus is a community on its own. The environment on campus and the many groups meant that there was always something to do. Friendly classmates, helpful professors and administrative staff helped make life on campus less stressful.”

Tella had a similarly inspiring experience. “I really enjoyed living and studying in Connecticut. I especially loved the environment, the people and the teaching style of the professors. My classmates were fantastic too, our sessions as teams were really interactive and we learnt a lot from each of our experiences.”

He notes that he found the north-eastern weather a little tough to deal with coming from the rather warmer climes of Nigeria, but managed to acclimatize eventually. Socially, he preferred to be off-campus: “I had a better social life when I moved from Storrs to Hartford, where I worked in one of our experiential learning initiatives CCIE, and also when I had an internship at Stamford with GE. The bigger cities had more fun spots compared to the campus environment.”

Working with big companies really completed the experience for him: “I was involved in a group project working on investment reporting strategy for ING. It was a ‘WOW’ experience for me. We communicated on a daily basis with the investment team and were able to advise them on how to report the investments of their very high net worth clients.”

Business skills for life

So, how do the UConn alumni intend to utilize their business skills in the future? “I plan to develop myself in the commercial area of the oil and gas industry in Africa,” says Tella. “The world needs energy and Africa is expected to be the source of 30% of the world energy need for the next 40 years. I plan to own my own exploration and production company in the near future.”

Vaah also aims to utilize her business skills in entrepreneurial ventures. “My focus in the short to mid-term is to work hard in my current job in order to leave a good mark and make good progress within the company. In the long-term however, my husband and I plan to set up businesses in Ghana and expand the microcredit business we are currently piloting. In addition to that I am very passionate about maternal health; especially with the quality of care pregnant women receive in hospitals and maternity wards during labor in Ghana, and plan to put more time and resources into running the foundation we have set up to pursue this cause, the Vaah Junior Foundation.”

Would she recommend the MBA experience? Unsurprisingly, she answers in the affirmative: “An MBA opens doors for people. Time invested in the right MBA can turn out to be the best investment you can make for your professional development. There are opportunities to make global friends for life and be a global human resource. For young businesspeople in Africa, I particularly recommend an MBA abroad, especially in North America. The entire experience is worth having.

Tella echoes this: “I think doing my MBA is the best ever decision I made for my career. I think big now; impossible is not in my vocabulary any more and doing business is so easy for me. I develop the business of my organization around the African continent and a lot of things I learnt when I did my MBA has been very useful. These are things like investment appraisal, marketing and importance of relationships in business, modeling, strategy and so on. For me, my MBA degree is the chief driver for my very fruitful future!”

The University of Connecticut will be attending the QS World MBA Tour in Africa this May (8-14). African students considering the MBA are encouraged to come and discuss MBA scholarships with the school. For more information about which cities QS World MBA Tour will be visiting follow the link below.

Written by

Pavel Kantorek

Mansoor is a contributor to and former editor of TopMBA.com. He is a higher and business education specialist, who has been published in media outlets around the world. He studied English literature at BA and MA level and has a background in consumer journalism.