2 years ago IE University has created a Junior Advisory Board which serves to provide a worldly and youthful perspective to IE University. IE’s Junior Advisory Board is considered as a part of the IE community, and shows a commitment to excellence and innovation. Board members, though still in High School, are outstanding members of their community and serve as joint representatives of their communities to IE, and also of IE in their communities. Here are the impressions from the 2011 annual board meeting:
This year´s committee comprised of twelve pre-university students, all with an international profile and aged between 15 and 19. They met in Madrid and Segovia to debate the challenges facing university education. The members of the International Junior Advisory Board were selected using IE’s network of 23 international offices in 20 countries, and are from the Czech Republic, Colombia, India, Jordan, Peru, Romania, Spain, Lesotho and the US.
The talented young members of the Board speak several different languages, are entrepreneurial and top-tier students in a range of disciplines. They are committed to humanistic values and social responsibility. They are international, practical, ambitious and above all they represent a generation which, thanks to its commitment to excellence, innovation, human values and ethics, will not only bring improvements to IE University, but will also serve as leaders in tomorrow’s world.
In their 2011 meeting, the Junior Advisory Board members were asked to think if entrepreneurship can be learnt and what is the role of universities in fostering an entrepreneurial culture. They also discussed how universities can promote diversity and how it can equip students with the tools and skills they need to function in an increasingly competitive global and cosmopolitan market. In an open forum they debated if Social Entrepreneurship has to be a part of a business education and how university sector can engage students in social issues.These workshops were moderated by Juan Lago Novás, Executive Director of Master in Architectural Management and Design, Vincent Doyle, Professor in Media and Cultural Studies and Waya Quiviger, Director of Master in International Relations.
According to the JAB, Business is not just about creating the next Google, Small and medium enterprises should be champions as well. They proposed that entrepreneurship be included in the general university curriculum.
JAB members believe that Social Entrepreneurship is business of the future and IE can be a future trendsetter. They recommended internships in emerging economies and exchanges with students from the developing countries.
They agreed that in an international environment, diversity cannot be taken for granted; true diversity, understood as the respect of differences, has to be worked towards.They thought that students at IE University are already very diverse in terms of their backgrounds, but that this is not sufficient in and of itself. Students with similar backgrounds still tend to associate with those who are most like them and the university might do more to encourage students to interact more with others who are different from them.
At the end of this year, many of the current Junior Advisory Board members will finish their membership period and the IE University will be conducting another international search for members. To learn more about the Junior Advisory Board members, the admission process, and to check the latest news about the JAB meeting, please visit our website. http://jab.ie.edu
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