Jessica Serrano, a recent graduate of the College of Staten Island’s International Business program, is working on her master’s degree. However, unlike a lot of graduate students in the U.S., who move on to another college in this country, Jessica is out seeing the world. As a result of the experience that she gained in the CSI International Business program, she has been accepted into an International Business Practice program that is giving her the opportunity to study for her MBA in London and Bangkok. The program was developed by the Mountbatten Institute, in conjunction with American National College, School of Business Administration (AIC) in Springfeld, MA.
Discussing CSI’s International Business program, program chairperson Alan Zimmerman says, “It’s the only undergraduate international business major in CUNY. There aren’t any others; they’re all graduate. We have about 60 majors now. Most of our students have double majors—they’re majoring in International Business and Finance or International Business and Marketing, and a few of them are double majors in Accounting.”
Zimmerman adds that the program also gives business students a unique edge in today’s competitive marketplace, “It’s a good idea for students to have double majors because their initial job may not be that much different from somebody else. For instance, it might be in marketing or in finance or it might be in accounting. But that International Business degree and all the other experiences that go with it put them a notch over just a marketing major or just a finance major. Then, as they progress in their career, they can get more involved in the international side.”
At present, the program offers internship opportunities for students to get them out in the real business world before they graduate. Zimmerman says that many International Business students participate in the College’s program in China, and he notes that there are also student exchange opportunities in Ireland (Dublin Institute of Technology) and France (IPAG).
Beyond the success that Jessica Serrano has had post-CSI, Zimmerman notes that other graduates of the program have gone on to careers in places like the U.S. State Department, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, top companies in the fashion industry, and more. As the number of students in the program has doubled in size since Zimmerman assumed the helm more than ten years ago, these success stories are surely just a small sample of what the program will accomplish for its graduates in the future.
