Gaining a Global Mindset
The world needs inspiring leaders with the skills to work in a global and multicultural business environment. At the Wisconsin School of Business, we expect students to challenge their own perspectives by engaging with and learning from others who bring different experiences and views. As part of a larger strategy designed to train students to be influential leaders, we build cultural competencies and thrive as faculty, students, and staff not only learn a global mindset, but also model it.
Together with our longtime supporter Ernst & Young LLP, now known in the market as EY, we are continuing to enhance and embrace diversity as our collective perspectives move us together forward. A major gift from EY has established the Global Mindset Leaders Program (GML), a set of curricular and co-curricular elements designed to expose students to cultural and social diversity in business.
Among the broader goals of the program are increasing diversity and fostering inclusive mindsets among students and faculty. The gift aims to bring Schoolwide awareness beyond standard diversity training and teach students that thriving in a global economy requires them to become inclusive and flexible leaders.
EY, the first corporate member of the WSB Innovation Fund and an inaugural member of the WSB Diversity Advisory Board, has had a dynamic relationship with the WSB through the accounting department for decades, connecting with the WSB as mentor, recruiter, and donor. Funding for the GML—a combination of corporate funding and alumni donations—embodies EY’s dedication to addressing diversity and inclusion issues, and demonstrates the firm’s commitment to sharing best business practices with WSB.
With guidance from EY, WSB is incorporating facilitated opportunities for students to learn about diversity and inclusion in the classroom to gain awareness about their own unconscious biases, broaden their worldview, and prepare to apply an inclusive mindset directly in the business world. Classes such as Introduction to Financial Accounting, Introduction to Managerial Accounting, and the Masters of Accounting Capstone course will incorporate GML in a way that encourages students to embrace Global Mindset as an essential business skill.
—Sam Lebewitz (BBA ’15, MACC ’16)
“Not only are we introduced to GAAP and IFRS standards, but we are presented with the idea that a diversity of opinions is invaluable as well,” says Sam Lebewitz (BBA ’15, MAcc ’16). “Specifically for accounting, standard-setting and application of rules requires welcoming many ideas and interpretations.”
Co-curricular programming like GML training for all incoming students and a professional development conference called “The Future is Now” further expands GML’s reach across the School by creating more opportunities for students to discuss diversity’s relevance in business and develop leadership, communication, and teamwork skills.
“The Global Mindset initiative challenges me and my peers to take a step back and look at the bigger picture,” says Lebewitz. “Openness to change, diverse perspectives, and new experiences is vital not only professionally, but personally as well.”
For EY, the investment is cultivating the right soil in which to plant the seed.
“Our grant is not just educating and it’s not just increasing diversity, it’s also creating an inclusive environment,” says EY Partner David Gay (BBA ’96). “That was the goal as we put it together.”
The gift also supports a Global Mindset scholarship fund that aims to attract more underrepresented minority students to the School, creating a more diverse student body. In fall 2015, the fund’s first year, seven students received scholarships, including three who were directly admitted to the Wisconsin School of Business as freshman.
The gift and the programming it funds have helped solidify a strong institutional foundation for diversity and inclusion efforts within the School.
“EY has been instrumental in helping to define our diversity strategy,” says Wisconsin School of Business Director of Diversity and Inclusion Binnu Palta Hill. “Not only are students being prepared to be more self-aware, to be more culturally competent, and to effectively work across differences, they’re also being taught in an environment that embodies the values that this Global Mindset is based on.”
The comprehensive initiatives, many of which parallel practices at EY, facilitate ongoing dialogue about diversity and inclusion throughout the School. These conversations have enabled students, faculty, and staff to explore new perspectives and inquire about peers’ experiences, creating an overall more welcoming environment.
“The whole conversation has shifted in the School,” says Hill. “We now have a shared vocabulary in talking about differences and how they influence our experiences. People are more apt to have courageous conversations as we as a community promote a safe and forgiving environment where people can make mistakes, learn from them, and grow. We are partners in each other’s learning.”
As GML initiatives expand, programming is expected to integrate into other majors, further nurturing a Schoolwide community that is trustworthy, progressive, inclusive, and collaborative.
