College of Business establishes Global Hope MBA, scholarship program for internationals
Janel Shoun-Smith |
As part of its increasing global reach and emphasis on building Businesses with a Purpose, Lipscomb University’s College of Business announced today the creation of the new Global Hope MBA degree program, providing five full-tuition scholarships each year to international students who pledge to return home and use their MBA to make a difference in their home country.
Lipscomb’s Global Hope MBA is the only program of its type in the world, according to College of Business Dean Turney Stevens.
“We will recruit students from around the world for five full-tuition scholarships each year in this program,” Stevens said. “Each will come to Nashville with all expenses paid, earn a fully accredited MBA degree but then commit to return home with a lifetime commitment to using his or her business success to found and grow churches, schools, clinics and social improvement agencies of all types.”
The program is being fully funded by the university and donors, and covers all tuition costs as well as transportation and living expenses while in the U.S. It will be an 18-month degree program, with 12 months spent in classrooms in Nashville followed by six months at home working on a master’s project required to be a social improvement project.
Each Global Hope MBA scholarship is worth $40,000 in current tuition and approximately $25,000 estimated related expenses during the 18 months of study. The first Global Hope MBA recipients are expected to enroll in classes as of fall 2013.
“At the end of six months back at home working on their capstone project, each student will be required to return to Nashville to present results of the master’s project to Lipscomb faculty. Upon successful completion of the program, each will graduate and then return home again to begin or continue a career, but also to serve the community from the business success made possible by this degree,” Stevens said.
Lipscomb University, which has seen enrollment increases of 70 percent since 2005, has decided to launch this program as a “way to give back,” Stevens said.
“We have been tremendously blessed at Lipscomb, not only with our recent success but also over the years through the generosity of so many donors who have shared their own business success by making this university possible,” he said. “We want to recreate that model in villages and towns all over the globe and hence the name ‘Global Hope,’ because we believe this is the real secret of how communities thrive.”
Mike Kendrick, associate dean of global studies in the College of Business, has been selected to lead the program. It will be advertised around the world and will target those interested in obtaining their degrees at a Christ-centered institution such as Lipscomb. Only those who meet all academic admissions standards and who can best demonstrate their commitment to return home with a lifetime commitment to share their success in their communities will be accepted.
“For any future business leader to succeed in today’s marketplace, they must have a global mindset and a commitment to a high level of integrity in their business dealings,” Kendrick said. “These are two points Lipscomb stresses with every student that fills our classrooms. The Global Hope MBA not only emphasizes these two crucial points with the five annual scholarship recipients, but these students will interact with all our graduate students, and thus reaffirm for all the importance of considering a global perspective in any endeavor and the importance of having a purpose beyond profit-making for all business practices.”
For more information on the program or to apply, go to globalbusiness.lipscomb.edu or business.lipscomb.edu.