HARVARD UNIVERSITY LAUNCH THE SECOND ANNUAL CROSSROADS EMERGING LEADERS PROGRAM

THE HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL CLUB OF THE GCC, AND THE LAKSHMI MITTAL SOUTH ASIA INSTITUTE (SAI), HARVARD UNIVERSITY LAUNCH THE SECOND ANNUAL CROSSROADS EMERGING LEADERS PROGRAM, SEPTEMBER 2018

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Harvard Professors and Alumni Offer Unique Opportunity for First Generation College Students from Africa, Middle East and South Asia.

Many nations of our region are under-represented within the Harvard community. Students in these countries, often ‘first in family’ to achieve a college education, may face socio-economic obstacles that discourage application to post-graduate schools.

Harvard University professors will welcome 70 first-generation college students from Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, to the Second Annual Crossroads Emerging Leaders program in Dubai, a unique, fully-funded leadership development opportunity for accomplished, ambitious young people who have already had to overcome significant barriers to higher education.

During the pilot program 2017, 55 students engaged with each other and faculty through the renowned Harvard Business School case-study method of teaching and learning, exposing them to real, contemporary business scenarios. Executives from leading private and publicly-owned multinational companies visited the classroom to interact with students and offer their invaluable wisdom and experience. 

The successful cohort of 2017 included a young woman from a city in Pakistan with the country’s lowest female literacy rate, an Indian student who had worked as a garbage collector to pay his school fees, and a student from Ghana whose mother inspired her to reach higher education.

The 2018 program will see a larger, even more diverse group of students exposed to a greater variety of disciplines within Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics (STEAM), business and leadership.

Harvard faculty leading the program include Tarun Khanna, Director, the Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute, Harvard University, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at the Harvard Business School; Karim R. Lakhani, Charles E. Wilson Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School, co-director of the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard, and the faculty co-founder of the Harvard Business School Digital Initiative.

The program will cover the costs of international travel, board, lodging and class materials, for students who are the first in their families to attend college and who are also facing challenging financial and social circumstances that discourage them from applying to postgraduate schools.

The program is organized by the Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute (SAI), Harvard University, and the Harvard Business School Club of the GCC, with the support of DIFC, Air Arabia, the Rove Hotels, Dubai Future Accelerators, and Expo 2020.

For more information, please contact hucrossroads@gmail.com or visit The Crossroads website.

About HBS Club of the GCC:

Founded in 2009, the HBS Club of the GCC is one of the most active alumni clubs in the middle-east.  With over 1,000 alumni in the GCC, the club organizes content-driven events in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Manama and Muscat with our marquee event, the Harvard Crossroads Conference, being one of the must-attend events in the region’s calendar.