SD Mines signs collaborative agreement with Harvard Business School

BY KAYLA PRASEK

South Dakota School of Mines & Technology has signed a collaborative agreement with the Harvard Business School to make the HBX Credential of Readiness (CORe) business fundamentals program available to SD Mines students.

The CORe program is a multi-week online program focused on the fundamentals of business thinking, according to a news release from SDSM&T. Designed for non-business majors, CORe consists of coursework in business analytics, economics for managers and financial accounting taught using the Harvard Business School case-study method. The program is taught by Harvard Business School faculty and is offered online through the school’s HBX platform with a worldwide cohort of students.

“Last spring when this program was launched, (SD Mines was) looking for ways for our students to get more business experience,” says Heather Wilson, president of SDSM&T. “We had three students test drive it for us, and they all thought it was an exceptional program, which is when we decided to move forward with the agreement.”

The agreement means HBX will reserve space for SD Mines students in each CORe cohort, while Mines will share information with

HBX regarding financial aid eligibility for need-based scholarships. “This program gives our students the competitive edge in the job market,” Wilson says.

Wilson says SD Mines has sought educational business opportunities for its students because about 80 percent of students go into industry. “We also have a rising number of graduates who become entrepreneurs, so we want our students to be more aware of business and not just the technical side of things, which they’re already receiving an excellent education in.”

Kelsey Hibl, a junior industrial engineering major at SD Mines, was one of the students to enroll in CORe last summer. “I decided to enroll in the program because I have always wanted to take more business classes along with my engineering classes and I always love to take on new adventures such as this one,” Hibl says. “I also knew that the school was looking for students to participate and give feedback and that was something that I was happy to provide in a way that would help them make their decision about keeping the program and partnering, or looking for a different way to offer business classes to students at SDSM&T.”

Even though she’s only held her Credential of Readiness for a few months, Hibl says it’s already proved its worth. “The first chance I really was able to use the Credential of Readiness was at the fall career fair at SDSM&T, and it definitely made a difference from previous years. The employers and companies I talked to were very eager to learn about what the program was, what I had done to complete it, and what that meant for me now. After the career fair, I received countless calls for interviews and had several offers, ultimately taking an offer with Emerson as their new product marketing engineering co-op. The CORe program definitely helped me with obtaining this position since it is a business and engineering-related job, which also makes it very exciting for me to be able to use my engineering knowledge as well as my business knowledge that I gained through the HBX CORe program.” PB

Kayla Prasek Staff Writer, Prairie Business 701.780.1187

kprasek@prairiebusinessmagazine.com