As the new school year begins, so too does another semester for the Student International Business Council (SIBC).The SIBC is the largest student-run organization on campus with over 400 active members. It is open to students of all classes and majors. For those interested, the All-Council kickoff night will be held at 8 p.m. on Monday in the Jordan Auditorium in the Mendoza School of Business.
The Council operates in two functional areas: summer internships and semester-long projects. This past summer, students who participated in the internships worked in South Korea, China, Thailand, Ecuador and the United States in functional areas ranging from U.S. start-ups to microfinance in Latin America and financial trading in Asia.
The project side of the Council partners students with world leading corporations across the four divisions of finance, accounting, marketing and consulting, providing real-world experience in each of these fields. This semester, we will be offering over 30 projects with industry leaders such as Goldman Sachs, NBC Sports, Bain & Co., McKinsey & Co., Deloitte & Touche and many more. At the conclusion of each project, students will travel throughout the country and present their findings to each corporation with their teams.
While we look forward to this upcoming school year and what the future brings, we would like to highlight some of the most exciting initiatives that were launched last semester.
In January 2012, the SIBC welcomed delegates from from Global View Initiative (GVI), a student-led organization at the prestigious Peking University in China. Students from Notre Dame and Peking University worked together to research, examine and make recommendations in formal presentations to faculty regarding future business trends that will affect both the United States and China.
Over fall break in October, 12 SIBC delegates will be traveling to Peking University in Beijing for a similar collaboration, strengthening relationships between students from both countries.
In addition to the international GVI initiative, the SIBC began exploring new domestic opportunities in 2012. This summer, the SIBC partnered with KlutchClub, a Chicago-based start-up, to provide an SIBC member the opportunity to intern at the start-up. This opportunity marks a renewed focus by the SIBC to find ways to further "Peace through Commerce" both internationally and domestically. With additional domestic internship opportunities on the horizon, the SIBC anticipates the 2012-2013 school year will be a very exciting one for new domestic opportunities.
While these are just a few recent initiatives, the SIBC is constantly researching and evaluating new ways to provide new opportunities to members, both domestically and internationally as has been the case throughout the Council's twenty three year history.
The SIBC was founded 23 years ago through a collaboration of dedicated Notre Dame students, Mr. Frank Potenziani (our benefactor) and Fr. Theodore Hesburgh. It began as a forum exploring the impacts of globalization on our society under the name, The Notre Dame Council on International Business Development. Students recognized the changing nature of the global economy, however, they felt that textbooks were insufficient to learn about how this was changing the world we live in. As companies could no longer concentrate solely on the domestic market, students viewed these changes as offering a meaningful opportunity to gain valuable business experience.
Through their vision and hard work, they formed what has become the largest student organization on Notre Dame's campus. Now known since 2000 as the Student International Business Council (SIBC), the SIBC seeks to fulfill its vision of "Peace Through Commerce" by interacting with global companies and organizations, while educating its members and the Notre Dame community about the different aspects of international business.
Throughout the course of the semester, the SIBC will provide bi-weekly updates on various Council initiatives and activities. Again, the upcoming year promises to be a very exciting one and we hope to see any interested students at the Jordan Auditorium on September 10th at 8 p.m.
The SIBC is the largest student-run organization on campus with over 400 active members. We seek to promote "Peace through Commerce" by partnering with leading companies across all areas of business and providing international internships for our members. We can be reached at sibc@nd.edu or at sibc.nd.edu
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
