Group N75 is all set for its first meet & greet in the land of ‘bitterballen’, wooden shoes and a week of very inspiring workshops.
A very exciting week awaits the International MBA group N75. The group – 21 very enthusiastic, driven students – will travel to the Netherlands for their week of workshops as part of phase 1 of their MBA programme.
Of the 21 students, 14 of them are Nuffic students, which means they have received funding from the Dutch government in order to participate in the MBA programme. We, as a business school, always feel very privileged to be able to offer students from all around the world this opportunity. One of them is Margaret Kaseje from Kenya, senior lecturer and also the Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences at a private university called the Great Lakes University of Kisumu. “I would not have been able to afford the MBA programme without the Nuffic bursary and I am extremely grateful for this opportunity - it is the kind of programme I have always wanted to do but never had either the time or funds.”
Margaret is very excited about her first visit to the Netherlands. “I hope to learn more about the people of the Netherlands and their culture, to meet new colleagues from different backgrounds and to learn from them. I also hope to learn a lot from the workshop contents and the resource people. I hope that this initial contact will lead to long-lasting interactions and learning in the future.”
Highly esteemed tutors
Workshops comprise Research Methodology, Marketing Management, Strategic Management, Operational Management and, of course, Action Learning. Tutors for this week are the highly esteemed Bernie van Zijl, Paul Turken and Walter Hainzl.
BSN’s director Marcel van der Ham is just as excited about the week ahead.
“N75 is the first MBA group to participate in our new major topic of food security. Most of the students come from organisations with a special task and interest in food security. We have asked them beforehand what they wish to learn about food security, and will offer a major that sets out to satisfy all their needs.”
Excited and nervous
Ingrid Brown (39) from Cape Town works as a Team Leader in the Credit Risk operations department at Old Mutual Finance, one of South Africa’s biggest banks. The visit to the Netherlands is not only her first time to the country of flowers and wooden shoes, but also her first trip outside South Africa. “I am excited and nervous about the workshops as I am not sure what to expect. I mostly look forward to meeting the professors and other students and all the knowledge I will be able to gain while I am there.” As well as those aspects, Ingrid also has ‘cycling’ and ‘wearing a pair of wooden shoes’ high on her to-do list.
Bring change to my organisation and my country
For 27-year old Hendra Susanto from Indonesia this marks the 7th visit to the Netherlands. He works as Industry Spatial Development Analyst for the Indonesian Ministry of Industry. He looks forward to meeting the other students in the group, as well as getting introduced to the curriculum and the Action Learning methodology.
As a Nuffic student, he feels really excited to be part of the programme. “Besides self-development, the possibility of my added knowledge to bring about change in my organisation and country is a big plus.”