Archive for the ‘International Development’ Category

Our first Global Cohort was a resounding success! Thunderbird for Good hosted 28 women entrepreneurs from Tonga, Samoa, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Palau. The women have since returned home and continue to share incredible stories of success, growth, and the many ways they are sharing their knowledge.

Goldman Sachs launched 10,000 Women in March 2008. It is a $100 million, five-year campaign to foster greater shared economic growth by providing 10,000 underserved women around the world with a business and management education. The program is founded on research conducted by Goldman Sachs, the World Bank, and others which suggests this kind of investment can have a significant impact on GDP growth. Research also suggests that such an investment in women can have a significant multiplier effect that leads not only to increased revenues and more employees for businesses, but also healthier, better-educated families, and ultimately more prosperous communities.

These culturally appropriate programs are intended to help open doors for thousands of women whose financial and practical circumstances would normally prevent them from receiving a traditional business education. Thunderbird is a proud partner in this initiative!

We are excited to host the 2nd Global Cohort of women entrepreneurs June 9th – 24th. Women from Latin America, Central America, and the Caribbean have been submitting applications with our US Embassies in countries such as Bolivia, Paraguay, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Argentina, Colombia, Jamaica, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Trinidad, Ecuador, Chile, and more. We are thrilled to be working with the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and other local business leaders to make this program a robust and fun learning experience.

We will officially welcome this new class of entrepreneurs to our campus on Monday, June 11th, so save the date! More details to follow. Immediately following this Welcome Reception, the women will sell their goods, handicrafts and cultural items during the 10,000 Women Marketplace. It is the perfect opportunity for these women to practice the 30-second elevator pitch Professor Steve Stralser will have just taught in class. Come eat, shop, mingle, meet, and welcome these entrepreneurs to Thunderbird!

Did you get involved as a volunteer during the 1st Global Cohort program in January? We are asking for volunteers once again to join us for an hour or two. We especially welcome all you Spanish speakers! Join us for off-campus dinners, working one-on-one with the women in the classroom, site visits to local businesses, sightseeing excursions and more. If you would like to get involved, please contact Cheri Roberts at 602-978-7742 or cheri.roberts@thunderbird.edu .

We are grateful for any time you can generously give. These programs are enriched by your efforts, and you will be in turn edified and inspired by these driven women entrepreneurs!

10,000 Women graduate Hasina Mahboobi speaks to the attendees of the event marking the 4th anniversary of 10,000 Women in Afghanistan on International Women’s Day.

Written by: 10,000 Women Assistant Director, Amanda Carson

On March 8^th, 2012, 10,000 Women celebrated International Women’s Day as well as the program’s fourth anniversary in Afghanistan. The event was co-hosted by 10,000 Women and the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) in the university’s gymnasium and had over 300 people in attendance, including 10,000 Women alumni, current AUAF students and several dignitaries and members of parliament. We were honored and impressed by the turnout and in fact had to turn several students away since the gym was at full capacity.

The event opened with a brief introduction by AUAF Provost Dr. Dawn Dekle, followed by a beautifully sung Koran reading by 10,000 Women alumni Hanifa Fatimi. The keynote speaker, HRH Princess India of Afghanistan, is one of the daughters of King Amanullah Khan and Queen Saraiya Tarzi, the royal couple that introduced such progressive reforms as education for both males and females in the early 20^th century in Afghanistan. HRH Princess India is one of the founding members of the Mahmud Tarzi Cultural Foundation, which is an organization dedicated to improving the lives of Afghan women and children with projects that include schools, hospitals, health clinics, and professional training, while offering financial aid for students. Her foundation funds a children’s care center, women’s care center, library and museum, and her efforts to raise awareness for the plight of Afghanistan’s women and children has resulted in the funding of numerous orphanages, schools and hospitals. President Hamid Karzai awarded her with the title of Honorary Cultural Ambassador of Afghanistan to Europe in 2006.

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Every year on March 8, the United Nations and women’s groups around the world commemorate International Women’s Day. This holiday first took place in the United States in 1908, and now is celebrated across the world by women in developed and developing countries alike.

This year, Thunderbird for Good looks back on achieving several milestones for women in 2011 and 2012.

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Alumni leader Malalai Jawad and Course Manager Zobaida Rasoul provide background on the program.

Written by: Amanda Carson, Assistant Director, 10,000 Women Afghanistan, AUAF

On Saturday, February 11, 2012 the 10,000 Women team hosted an informational session for the male family members of the 10,000 Women students in Cohorts 11 and 12. Approximately 20 women and their male family members attended. When the men arrived, they all filled out a survey relating to male support of women’s education and business and received brochures and other information relating to the program.

Hanifa Fatemi from Cohort 5 opened the session with a beautiful Islamic blessing. Course Manager Zobaida Haji Rasoul introduced all the staff members that were present. Amanda Carson then provided an overview of the program, explaining the partnership between Goldman Sachs, Thunderbird and AUAF. Veteran program instructor Fauzia Assifi led the rest of the session, describing the course structure, curriculum and wraparound services provided for all women in the program. She also emphasized the value of the program as well as why it is so important to have family support and buy-in.

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10,000 Women scholars with Professional Women's Forum members at Henkel

Written by: Wynona Heim, Program Manager, Thunderbird for Good

On Tuesday January 24^th, the Professional Women’s Forum of Henkel Consumer Goods Inc. hosted 28 women entrepreneurs from 10 countries in Asia and the Pacific for an afternoon business site visit, roundtable discussions on leadership, and a networking dinner at the Henkel facility in north Scottsdale.  The women are spending two weeks at Thunderbird’s campus in Glendale for an intensive business skills training course as part of the global Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women initiative.

Cindy Demers, VP of Corporate Communications at Henkel, gave the ladies a short overview of Henkel’s global operations, primary brands, and an overview of what functions the Scottsdale location serves to the corporation.  This overview included Henkel’s Vision to be a global leader in brands and technologies, and how they act on that vision within the context of their organizational values:

1)      We put our customers at the center of what we do.

2)      We value, challenge and reward our people.

3)      We drive excellent sustainable financial performance.

4)      We are committed to leadership in sustainability.

5)      We build our future on our family business foundation.

To conclude the initial overview session, the ladies were given an overview of our host organization, the Professional Women’s forum at Henkel, including membership levels, activities, and the benefits of professional organizations.

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By: Samantha M. Novick

Yesterday, Thunderbird welcomed 28 women entrepreneurs from 10 countries to campus for two weeks of intensive business skills training. The program, a partnership between Thunderbird, the U.S. Department of State and the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women initiative, is the first of three “global cohorts” of women who will receive training in Arizona. While Thunderbird has run intensive business skills training programs since 2005 for women entrepreneurs from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Jordan, this is the first time that such a diversity of nations are represented in one class. This “truly global” program brings together women from nations as diverse as Kyrgyzstan, Kiribati, Malaysia and Tajikistan.  The businesses that each woman operates represent many different industries, including traditional handicrafts, food service, farming, homeopathic therapy, landscape design, digital marketing and consulting.

The fellows were welcomed to campus with an opening reception and global market, attended by faculty, students, staff and our community partners.  Many of the fellows brought goods from their businesses to sell- including beautiful hand-woven Ikat scarves and handbags from Uzbekistan, capiz shell jewelry and home décor from Indonesia and painted canvases and woven goods from Papua New Guinea.  Remarks were made by Thunderbird President Dr. Angel Cabrera, Sharon Harper, President and CEO of The Plaza Companies and a member of Thunderbird’s Board of Fellows, as well as Ambassador Barbara Barrett, a Thunderbird Trustee and the recently announced interim president of Thunderbird. Ambassador Barrett has been a strong supporter of Thunderbird for Good since its inception.

For the next two weeks, the women will take classes with Thunderbird faculty, interact with students and meet with local female business leaders across Arizona. Today, the women will take part in a strategy practicum with Thunderbird Professor Dr. Nathan Washburn, and this afternoon they’ll participate in a roundtable discussion with the Professional Women’s Forum at Henkel in Scottsdale. Henkel operates worldwide with leading brands and technologies in three business areas: Laundry and Home Care, Cosmetics/Toiletries and Adhesive Technologies.

We’re looking forward to the adventures that we will have over the next two weeks with our first Global Cohort! Follow the Thunderbird for Good blog, Facebook page, Flickr and Twitter account for more news, photos and multimedia.

Article prepared through collaboration by Cynthia Braden (Tbird’03) (HTT), Kirby Hayes (USDA), and Rebecca Yagerman (USAID)

Afghan graduates of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women in Afghanistan meet with leaders of the Ghazni Province PRT team.

Seven Afghan graduates of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women at the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) met with Human Terrain Team (HTT), U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) members of the Ghazni PRT on November 30, 2011 in Kabul. The meeting, hosted by Pamela Rager (T-bird ‘99), Executive Director of 10,000 Women on the campus of the AUAF, focused on current and future economic opportunities for the graduates in Ghazni Province. Several of the women already have established businesses in Ghazni and Kabul with employee numbers ranging from a dozen to a thousand.

Current businesses include fruit processing, tailoring, wool processing, construction, sericulture, and yogurt processing. The entrepreneurs discussed future business opportunities and various ways the PRT could support their endeavors. New business interests included cardboard manufacturing and aquaculture. The women identified access to training, land, and infrastructure as common limiting factors to business development and/or growth. The meeting was an exciting first step toward enhancing these entrepreneurs’ activities in Ghazni province and further meetings have been planned. Most importantly, these seven women represent a fraction of the 300 Afghan graduates of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women and there are many more motivated entrepreneurs across the country working hard to enrich Afghanistan’s economy.

Written by: Shagufta Parveen, Owner of SUAYYA Enterprises – Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women, Project Artemis Pakistan graduate, 2011

Edited by: Wynona Heim, Program Manager, Thunderbird for Good

Formal photo of Summit attendees

I was recently invited to attend the Istanbul Forum for Economic Cooperation between Turkey, Afghanistan, and Pakistan in Turkey on November 1^st.  Heads of state from all three countries were at the meeting, as well as the President of the Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Vice President and Secretary from the Pakistani Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

There were three of us ladies from Pakistan who were invited to attend: myself (Shagufta Parveen), Shah Rukh (both of us 10,000 Women graduates), and Saddaf.  We were pleased to meet four fellow businesswomen from Afghanistan who are graduates of our sister 10,000 Women program there: Fatima Akbari, her daughter Shahla, Andeisha Farid, and Malalai Jawad.

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By Sherbahadar Himmat, Afghan Media Management Program Participant

From September 11 – 16, a media management training workshop was executed at Thunderbird School of Global Management for the executive directors of radio and TV stations in Afghanistan, Eastern provinces. I was one of the participants who attended the workshop and would like to express my feelings about it.

In this workshop at Thunderbird, which was a 5 day long program, we covered 6 different subjects which were taught by different professors. Their teaching methods were organized in a very professional way. Besides their teachings, we were also given the opportunity to express our thoughts and perspectives.

The subjects we were taught during the program were: Negotiation Skills, Marketing, Accounting, Multi-track Diplomacy, New Media for Business Development, Advertising, Commercials and Social Networks. In fact, studying each field separately could take several years to cover all the material. But the way the professors taught us, at the end of each day, I felt I majored in each of these subjects.

Students might not remember every single word of what he or she learns at the university while studying for several years, but they do understand several things about that field such as; what the field covered? What is the position/value of such majors/fields in the social life? How can he help his community and people? Why studying this field is important?

By studying each day at Thunderbird, we have learned the value of such fields in our social life,  and I now have an idea how to use these fields in my life.

There are the changes I have seen in myself after participating in this program, even after my 18 years of education and 8 years of work experience:

1: On this day we learned about Negotiation skills. I was provided with the keys to successful communication. I learned to take into consideration the points that are very necessary while communicating in a group, or the points to remember while I’m trying to achieve objectives. Basically, how to communicate.  How to present my suggestions/requests so I can persuade the listener, and I can achieve my goal or get a positive result. I might have handled meetings very professionally before, but the self-confidence that I have now, I didn’t own it before.

2 : Marketing is a very important step/process toward achieving your goals, not only in business, but in fact it is important in politics, culture, society, religion, economics, and other ways to achieve one’s goals. For example: to find market for a political goal, one has to work to attract more followers. But in business, it’s to attract more customers to sell your products to. The Marketing class at Thunderbird, taught me lessons in persuading and convincing others to do advertising, using my radio station. If I am told to explain this field in once sentence, I would say “If I don’t benefit others, they won’t benefit me.” Meaning if I want to receive something from someone else, I also have to give him something. What I should give that person was taught to me in Thunderbird on that one day.

3: Financing – It’s the most important part of keeping an organization moving and sustainable. I have run an organization for 8 years. My financing was somehow good, but Thunderbird showed me ways in which I can forecast my future. With the formulas and charts that Thunderbird provided us to manage our finances, I can clearly forecast my organization’s existence, strengths, and weaknesses in the upcoming years and I can easily say where I will be standing after five years.

4: Multi-track diplomacy: Before I used to think that only countries use this diplomacy for developing their relationships but now I understand that this diplomacy can be used to increase the network and relationship of two organizations. I learned how can we attract the attention of different people to our stations and use them in terms of achieving our goals.

We were offered very useful and wise advices and guidelines for receiving advertisements for our radios. Beside that we also learned “If we don’t make our programs based on our audience’s interest, we won’t find any listeners or audiences. If we don’t have any listeners/audiences, we won’t receive any advertisements, and if we don’t receive them, we can’t continue our business.”

At the end I want to thank Thunderbird from the bottom of my heart. I am very impressed with their management style and appreciate it. They taught us A LOT of things in so little time. If I don’t get success in my business from now on, that would mean that I didn’t follow the lessons and guidelines of Thunderbird and haven’t embraced the advice and guidelines which were taught to me there. If I had the possibilities and chances, I would pursue my higher education at Thunderbird again and then would return to serve my countrymen and women.

by Amy Scerra and Anna Mussman

Mr. Shaiq suggests meeting again in one month to continue the dialogue

At a reunion of sorts, nine media entrepreneurs from Nangarhar and Kunar gathered at FOB Fenty on October 13, two weeks after they returned from a 3-week exchange in the U.S., a program funded through a Public Diplomacy small grant and facilitated by American Councils for International Exchange. Thunderbird School of Global Management hosted the gentlemen for 9 days as they completed a rigorous week of business training.

This gathering of media minds brought Brigade, PRT and District military and civilian officers together with radio station owners and managers to reiterate the power of media, particularly in promoting good governance, rule of law, agriculture development and economic growth.

“Oranges are an important crop in Nangarhar,” said Rodat’s Ag Advisor, Dr. Cheng.  “If you warn farmers of an approaching cold spell through daily weather reports over the radio, the farmers can harvest and then sell their oranges before they are damaged by frost.”

Sabawoon Hotik, Task Force Bronco’s Cultural Advisor and Media Liaison, talked about contacting his office to confirm news stories.  He explained that due to security concerns, independent journalists are unable to travel to sites to validate claims made by the insurgency and it would be best if these journalists heard both sides.

Governance Advisor Joanne Jensen stressed the media’s influence on economic stability.  “Help local businesses grow through radio advertisements,” she advised.  “Media as a powerful tool for communications that can highlight the governance capacity to provide essential services to the population and build credibility for GIRoA and its leaders,” said Civil Affairs Officer Major Nilda Toro. “The media can capitalize on GIRoA’s progress to assist Afghanistan to move forward.”

SCR John Bernlohr pointed out that the drawdown in forces does not impact America’s commitment to the people of Afghanistan. “The U.S. Embassy is committed to stay for years to come and will continue to support a vibrant and free media throughout the country,” Bernlohr stated.

Speaking about their impressions of the United States, the group was astonished to see the conglomeration of ethnicities that represent American society. They also discussed misperceptions, “We thought Muslims were treated badly in the United States,” said Shakib Amiri, owner of NAN, a radio station in Shinwar District. “But when we talked to Muslims on 9-11 while they were worshipping at a mosque in Arizona, we learned that this isn’t true. These Muslims all said they were treated very well.”

As the gathering came to an end, Mr. Shaiq, owner of Sharq Network, asked to meet again.  “Americans have different ideas that can help us overcome problems that often seem impossible to fix,” said Mr. Shaiq,  as everyone nodded in agreement.