Last month Senator John Kerry addressed the Fletcher School's 2011 graduating class at their graduation just outside Boston.
The class included the third cohort to graduate from the Fletcher School’s Master in International Business (MIB). The relatively new MIB is an alternative to the MBA for people “interested in international affairs who firmly believe that the private sector is integral to the resolution of global issues.”
It brings together traditional MBA subjects with the Fletcher School’s expertise in international affairs.
Kerry said that it was a moment of great uncertainty and extraordinary promise at the same time for the world’s future policymakers:
“We need new thinking and bold action: this is where you come in”, he said to the students. “The challenge for your generation of diplomats, policy-makers, thinkers is to be prepared to think differently, act courageously...Don’t leave [the world] to isolationists and extremism... [This] is precisely the gift and responsibility that Fletcher has given you: the ability to think for the long-term, and the courage to be able to act on those thoughts”.
The Fletcher School’s website describes the MIB as a “hybrid international business/international relations degree… founded on the principle that business professionals today must be well-versed not only in business management and strategy but also the complex reality of external governmental, legal, social, and environmental factors that influence business.”
“The Fletcher curriculum goes beyond the walls of multinational corporations to understand the contexts in which these companies operate.” As well as finance, strategy and marketing, there4 are modules on international geopolitics, economics, trade legislation, business law, negotiation, the role of international NGOs.
Senator Kerry also joked about the advantages of living in the Red Bull era (“I had to fake staying awake in class”, he said), and proposed a new meaning for the WTF acronym (it stands for Wonderful Tufts Faculty, doesn’t it?).
Click play to watch the whole speech.
{{video:embed url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x70MhW2UJ8M"}}
Click here to find out more about the Fletcher school’s MIB.
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