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I gained so much knowledge and grew so much as a person that I came out feeling like I could take on the world.
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Mary Lefebvre
Management School in the United Kingdom was approved by Brock University's Senate. As part of the program, Goodman also welcomes the top students from the European partner schools each year, which adds a diverse international perspective into the School’s classrooms. The program is growing at the graduate level, too, said Abbas Sumar, Goodman’s manager of international programs and exchange partnerships. In 2019, Goodman launched an MBA double degree with France’s KEDGE Business School and the Burgundy School of Business. It was the additional European connections that convinced Mary Lefebvre to apply to the program after high school in 2015. She was one of the first two students to participate in the French track at NEOMA when it launched that year. The Buffalo, NY, resident could have gone to business schools stateside, but the opportunity to study intensively for two years abroad and do an international work term convinced her to take a chance on being part of that original French cohort. “If it was just the regular business program, I probably would have chosen a school in the U.S…, but it was definitely that program that made the decision for me,” Lefebvre said. “People might hesitate to apply because it is a big step and a big change, but I gained so much knowledge and grew so much as a person that I came out feeling like I could take on the world. I feel like I will be OK — not OK but I will excel.” For all the program’s growth over the years, however, the focus is still on recruiting students like Rose and Lefebvre who are up for both the academic and personal challenges of studying and working overseas. Recruitment efforts are also being ramped up in different cultural communities, including in centres with large Francophone populations across Canada. “We’re looking for the cream of the crop in terms of academic capability and developed extracurricular involvement. That’s our starting point,” Sumar said. “You can have a lot of students like that but only a select few possess the sense of adventure and tolerance for ambiguity required to excel.” Despite Rose being the only person to sign up for the double degree all those years ago, the program isn’t a hard sell, Sumar noted. “More and more students from across Canada are looking for a globally immersive, experiential-focused and academically rigorous degree,” he said. “When prospective
students learn that they’re going to walk away with a global perspective, backed by two degrees and global work experience, the decision to apply to Goodman is simple. No other school in Canada offers the range of programming or depth of global and cultural engagement that we do.” That's experience that will help them in job markets around the world after graduation. Mike Fortaleza capitalized on the connections he made during his co-op term with hotel booking website Trivago when he graduated from the EBS German track in 2017. The St. Catharines native applied for a job with the tech company based in Düsseldorf and has been working “in a place that’s pretty special” ever since. He knows he wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do search engine marketing for Trivago without Goodman’s double degree program. “When I got the interview, I knew the face that was interviewing me. We met when I was at Trivago (as an intern) and that helped,” Fortaleza said. “I didn’t have the exact background experience but they liked what they heard and the case study I presented, and they trusted I was a quick learner.” The work has come with enviable benefits, including flexible hours, access to the gym, company sports programs and library on the Trivago campus, and a subsidized canteen. There’s also opportunity for career advancement. Fortaleza has held two positions in two and a half years because the company nurtures talent, he explained. “Trivago’s really good with career progression,” he said. “They post a lot of jobs internally and encourage employees to explore their interests.” The international co-op is the one opportunity that eluded Rose during his time abroad because of the newness of the double degree at the time. Still, the team lead for commercial banking at National Bank knows the chance he took all those years ago set him up for career success in Canada — and will do the same for others who graduate from the program. “It shows employers you have the confidence to make the jump and do something different. There’s lots of BBA programs out there but not a lot of dual degree ones, so something like that on your resume will help you stand out,” Rose said. “The program itself, regardless of country or school, is something I would definitely do again.”
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