Employers consistently demand that their employees have global competency. But how do students develop such a global competency? Maryland Smith offers a variety of programs — both abroad and on-campus — to help students develop their global mindset.
On-Campus and Virtual Programming
“…one that combines an openness to and awareness of diversity across countries and markets with a propensity and ability to see common patterns across countries and markets.” – Financial Times
Different authorities may take different approaches to define a global mindset. The important thing to remember is that people with a global mindset can understand differences among cultures and business practices and welcome the opportunity to learn about similarities.
CGB defines ‘Global Mindset’ by seven competencies or attributes that those with a global mindset exhibit. Contact CGB for more information on how to develop a global mindset.
Seven Competencies of the Global Mindset
Tolerance of Ambiguity — Ability to navigate unclear or uncertain situations without feeling stress or anxiety. Comfort with vague instructions or information.
Global Business Savvy — Knowledge of business environments and growth drivers (institutional, geographic, cultural, and economic) that operate in and between countries.
Passion for Diversity — Willingness to seek out and consider diverse viewpoints, appreciate the values and beliefs of others, and collaborate on diverse teams.
Cultural Curiosity — Interest in learning about cultures and world events, and taking the initiative to seek out more information about local contexts.
Adaptability — Ability to overcome challenges and be resourceful when faced with difficult situations.
Self-awareness and Humility — Confidence in oneself without overestimating one's abilities while valuing the experience and backgrounds of others.
Relationship Building — Eagerness to interact with new people and develop a strong network built on communication, empathy, and mutual respect.
The International Business (IB) Agility Labs are short-term virtual case challenges that allow undergraduate students to learn from global business leaders and collaborate with international peers. Students will benefit from exposure to an international company, work on teams with business students around the world, and gain hands-on case experience to build their resumes and CVs. Through these labs, students gain multiple global perspectives in a fast-paced, intensive, and hands-on competition while working on a real global business issue.
Marketing Maryland is an internship program where students gain professional experience with a Maryland company. Students are matched with a small to midsize enterprise internationalizing their business and seeking Maryland Smith talent to help them do so.
Applications are now closed.
Eligibility: Open to all business majors, though geared towards marketing majors.
Faculty champion: Mary Beth Furst, Associate Clinical Professor, Marketing
The internship program is paid through a stipend and students work on assigned teams. More information on the company is provided during the application and matching process. Students work on projects focused on eCommerce and digital marketing strategy during this 2+ month, part-time summer internship. Potential projects include:
Website optimization for international eCommerce
Website tracking and analytics
Search engine optimization
Website localization (creating or enhancing a website for a specific country)
Leveraging Your Global Mindset is an online module geared to help students translate their global experience into their career and is sponsored by the Office of Career Services and the Center for Global Business. By watching this module, students reflect on their global experience, analyze specific skills that they developed or enhanced through their global experience, and develop techniques to translate their global experience in an interview and on their resume.
Embassy Day is a Maryland Smith students’ first introduction to a global mindset and the launching point for their self-guided discovery of the competencies that make up a global mindset. Embassy Day is a two-part event of Smith Start, a year-long orientation program for first-year business students.
Part 1: Global Competencies for the 21st Century Workplace
Students will be contacted directly with registration instructions.
Embassy Day is an opportunity to learn about culture, business, and society at an embassy. Embassy visits will take place either in-person in Washington D.C. or virtually.
Embassy Day is hosted in collaboration with the Undergraduate Programs Office.
Pursue a career in international business and participate in the International Business Trek in Maryland!
Interested students can register for any or all visits. Registering for one visit does not require a student to register for the entire program.
The Certified Global Business Professional (CGBP), managed by NASBITE International, is a nationally recognized certification sought by employers around the country. It confirms applied knowledge in international trade and export management and shows potential employers that the holder brings the level of global expertise and professionalism that is required in today’s competitive environment.
The center offers the CGBP Student Pathways Cohort Program, a structured program intended to prepare a cohort of students for the CGBP exam and introduce them to and engage them with NASBITE International.
The program is comprised of a mix of four synchronous sessions and asynchronous study to prepare students to take the CGBP exam. The program offers facilitation by a CGBP professional, access to take the CGBP exam, networking and relationship-building opportunities, and NASBITE International Membership (a $75 value) which includes:
CGBP study guide
Preparation support
Expert Helpline
LinkedIn Student Group
CGBP Practice Exam
Other networking opportunities
Please check back for 2022-23 program information.
Enrollment, requirements, and preliminary fees
All interested students are eligible to register.
The registration deadline for this cohort has been extended and registrations are being accepted until Friday, February 25 2022.
Students enrolled in the program will have the option to take the CGBP exam at any point during their program at Smith or up to four months after graduation.
Students will have to enroll themselves to take the exam and pay upfront.
Students will be obligated to submit their results to CGB to verify their passing of the CGBP exam.
If a student passes, CGB will reimburse them the exam fee of $195.00.
If a student does not pass the exam the first take, the student will not be reimbursed the fee of the exam.
If a student does not follow through with exam commitment, the student will not be reimbursed the fee of the exam.
Structure
Facilitated program through CGB will be held synchronously and asynchronous over a three-month period before a student is able to sit for the exam.
Synchronously: Students will meet with a CGBP professional once every three weeks for two hours. Confirmed schedule will be based on availability of professional and students. If not, CGB will set this schedule.
Asynchronously: Students will be assigned readings and other assignments correlated to each of the four domains of the CGBP exam in between synchronous meetings.
Final content provided and how each session is devised is ultimately up to the CGBP professional.
Suggested calendar/content:
Session content
Preparation for upcoming session
Completion of preparation
Session 1
Introduction and overview – provided via recording and shared with students.
Read Domain 1 of Exam Prep Study Guide
Take prep exam for Domain 1
Send prep exam to CGBP professional.
Session 2
Domain 1: Global Business Management
Read Domain 2 of Exam Prep Study Guide
Take prep exam for Domain 2
Send prep exam to CGBP professional.
Session 3
Domain 2: Global Marketing
Read Domain 3 of Exam Prep Study Guide
Take prep exam for Domain 3
Send prep exam to CGBP professional.
Session 4
Domain 3: Supply Chain Management
Read Domain 4 of Exam Prep Study Guide
Take prep exam for Domain 4
Send prep exam to CGBP professional.
Session 5
Domain 4: Trade Finance
Advise students to retake prep exam before exam.
The Positive Impact Internship is a way to learn from companies in Brazil that strive to make a positive impact on the world. Students are placed on multicultural teams to work on a real business problem focused on social impact. The Center for Global Business is providing a full scholarship to UMD students who identify as underrepresented students.
WORK ON MULTICULTURAL TEAMS: Teams will consist of 5-7 students from around the world, including Brazil.
INTERACTIVE APPLIED PROJECT: During the program, students will work directly with company representatives to provide actionable solutions to real business problems.
STUDENT CENTERED LEARNING: Meetings with the companies and with the faculty champion encourage students to share knowledge and experiences to reach optimal solutions.
The Center for Global Business is providing a full scholarship to four UMD students who identify as underrepresented students.
Stay tuned for more information about the HUMLOG Challenge with the Global Business School Network in Fall 2022. Please see information below about the Fall 2021 HUMLOG Challenge.
The HUMLOG Challenge Fall 2021
The Global Business School Network Learners Track features a virtual team competition designed to engage students from across the globe who have an interest in humanitarian logistics and a desire to serve their community. The Covid-19 pandemic has tested communities across the world on preparedness and resilience. In the context of accelerated climate change and population growth, the current trend of frequent major disasters is expected to increase. Called The HUMLOG Challenge, the student competition will focus on Community Disaster Resilience. Teams will be challenged to identify a locally relevant natural disaster and develop a solutions packet that will address the community’s preparedness, response and level of resilience.
Learners Track
Taking you BEYOND the credential, the Learners Track is designed for graduate and undergraduate students who are committed to reskill, innovate, upskill, collaborate and are interested in making an impact in their community. Through the month of October, learners can engage in a variety of virtual experiences that facilitate collaboration, development and learning.
Study abroad broadens horizons and enhances students' ability to succeed in business. Students who study abroad learn how to successfully navigate foreign environments, to communicate effectively with people from different backgrounds and cultures, and to adapt to a variety of situations. Maryland Smith offers semester, short-term, and summer study abroad options.
Business students interested in studying abroad should check out the Study Abroad Start Here page.
Semester study abroad is great way for students to expand their global mindset.
The study abroad process includes a number of factors including financing, course transfer, choice of destination, and more. Students must speak with their academic advisor and the Center for Global Business before committing to a study abroad program.
Business Exchange
The Smith School has set up agreements with universities around the world that offer business courses in English each semester. Smith students pay the University of Maryland tuition to participate in these programs.
Engage in an experience that will broaden your global mindset by fostering cultural curiosity and adaptability. The Smith School's short-term programs provide students with the opportunity to apply a comparative international lens to their business education and professional career.
Winter Break Courses
Dates subject to change.
Supply Chain Management Study Abroad: Peru and Panama-Winter
Program leaders: Humberto Coronado
Dates abroad: January 7, 2023 (arrival) – Jan 20, 2023 (departure)
Location(s): Peru and Panama
Program fee: TBA
This course explores the impact, challenges, and opportunities of the global economy in Latin American countries. Students will have the opportunity to visit two of the most important ocean ports in Latin America while learning international business best practices from local leading companies. This course is also an opportunity for students to expand their global mindset by immersing themselves into the rich cultures of Panama and Peru.
Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the Contemporary South African Context
Program leaders: Victor Mullins and Jeanette Snider
Dates abroad: January 4, 2023 (arrival) – January 15, 2023 (departure)
Location(s): Cape Town, South Africa
Program fee: TBA
The course will provide opportunities for theoretical engagement, experiential learning and reflection through a combination of seminars, seminar linked site visits, symposia with organizations and leaders located in the surrounding communities of Cape Town, South Africa. While there are many emerging perspectives on social entrepreneurship and innovation, most generally a social innovation can be understood as a positive, creative shift in systemic social, economic, and/or environmental patterns. Many social innovations have global ambitions, but even when pursued primarily at the local level, social innovations go beyond simply providing a needed service or remediation. They challenge and experiment with a given system’s underlying building blocks: its rules, policies, technologies, structures, beliefs, habits, values, etc.
Accounting and Finance: Emerging Tech, ESG, UK and European Regulation, and Historical Foundations
Lead: Jim McKinney
Dates: January 7, 2023 (arrival in London) - Jan 21, 2023 (departure from Rome)
Locations: London, Brussels, Paris, Florence, and Rome
Program fee: TBA
This course will explore emerging technology and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) topics in accounting and finance industries both from an organizational and regulatory perspective within the United Kingdom and the European Union. The course will additionally look at historic foundations of accounting and finance that brought us to this point. A large part of the course will include visits to sites that are significant to the development of the accounting profession and offices of accounting and finance thought leaders of today in emerging tech and ESG. This course will count as an accounting elective for degree requirements for students majoring in accounting.
From Here to There - Getting Products to Customers
Program leaders: David Ashley
Dates abroad: January 6, 2023 (arrival in Hanoi) – January 16, 2023 (departure from Singapore)
Location(s): Hanoi and Singapore
Program fee: TBA
This course will focus on logistical and supply chain challenges faced by emerging markets (Hanoi) and mature shipping centers (Singapore). The course will exam business challenges in getting a product to market and how those challenges are being met through the relationships among the stages of a supply chain.
Read about previous short-term study abroad programs:
CGB's short-term study abroad model ensures students get the most out of their international experience. The model incorporates pre and post-study abroad sessions specifically designed to prepare students to take full advantage of their cultural immersion and leverage their global business acumen in their future careers.
Session
Content
Pre-program
Undergraduate Common Core – Learn how openness and awareness of cultures, markets, and trends affect global business.
Pre-program
Course Specific Content – As determined by the instructor.
Pre-program
Pre-Departure Orientation – Health, safety, culture, and logistics.
Post-program
Course Specific Content – As determined by the instructor.
Post-program
Global Showcase – Show off your global mindset and business knowledge through team poster presentations.
If you have questions about study abroad programs please contact please contact CGB at smithlobal@umd.edu.
UMD is planning for in-person study abroad for Summer 2022. Due to the evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, the University reserves the right to cancel programs before the program start date. Learn more about study abroad updates.
The Global Summer Internship Program
Gain professional experience abroad and earn 7 credits
Spend the summer of a lifetime working in Sydney, Singapore, Prague, Auckland, Madrid, or Dublin at a for-credit internship. Students begin with a 1-credit pre-internship cross-cultural practicum in spring and then travel abroad for a 6-credit internship.
Experience first-hand the challenges and opportunities of working in another country and with people from different cultural backgrounds. Based in one of six exciting locations around the world, the internship program gives students an international experience that is invaluable for professional development and building one's resume
How to apply?
Application deadline – February 13, 2022
Notification date – February 20, 2022
Click on the location in which you are interested in below to navigate to the Education Abroad brochure, then click "Apply Now" in the top left-hand corner.
Program dates and fees
Meetings before and after the internship
Students applying for the program must be available for the on-campus pre-internship course and one post-internship meeting. The course (BMGT398J) will meet Mondays (starting March 28, 2022) from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Upon committing to the program students will be manually registered for this course. The date of the post-internship meeting will be determined later based on students’ availability.
Program fees
The program fees below reflect what will be charged to the participant's UMD student account. The program fees below include the non-refundable Education Abroad Fee ($500), required international health insurance ($92), housing (shared apartments or similar), and instructional costs (7 credits, cultural activities, some group meals, and on the ground support). Housing and instructional costs vary by location.
Open to all undergraduate UMD majors who are second-year sophomores and above.
Students must have at least a 3.0 GPA.
Students must be in good academic and judicial standing with the university.
Scholarships
#SmithGoesGlobalFund Scholarship – up to $2,700
Maryland Smith students can apply for the #SmithGoesGlobalFund Scholarship to help reduce the out-of-pocket costs of study abroad such as airfare and personal expenses. Learn more about the #SmithGoesGlobalFund Scholarship in the ‘#SmithGoesGlobalFund Scholarship’ section on this page.
CIBE International Internship Scholarship - $1,000
All students who commit to the Summer Global Internship Program are eligible to receive a $1,000 CIBE International Internship Scholarship. This award is provided by a Title VI grant from the U.S. Department of Education known as CIBE (Center for International Business Education). The UMD Center for Global Business is one of 15 schools nationwide to receive the CIBE grant and its mission is to promote the ability of U.S. businesses to compete globally and to foster international understanding. Application instructions will be provided in your internship acceptance letter.
Apply for the #SmithGoesGlobal Fund Scholarship to help reduce the out-of-pocket costs of study abroad such as airfare and personal expenses. The #SmithGoesGlobal Fund Scholarship consists of three types of awards: flight scholarship, semester program scholarship, and short-term program scholarship. The application process is the same for all three awards.
How to Apply
Check to ensure eligibility (see eligibility section below).
Apply to a study abroad program in MyEA AND apply to the Education Abroad Fund Scholarship. Make sure to check the study abroad application and Education Abroad Fund Application deadlines.
Complete the #SmithGoesGlobal Fund application below by the deadline.
Students will be considered for a scholarship based on their responses in the application form, their responses in the Education Abroad Fund Scholarship application, and their study abroad program information. Applying to this scholarship has no bearing on a student's study abroad program application.
Application Deadlines and Notification Dates
Study Abroad Program Term
Application Deadline
Notification Date
Spring, spring break, and winter programs
October 1
October 14
Summer, fall, full-year programs
March 1
TBD
Eligibility
To be eligible to apply, students must:
Be a current business major.
Have applied or be in the process of applying to their first study abroad program at UMD.
Have completed a FAFSA and received financial aid.
Enroll in a language course abroad and apply for the $1,000 Business Exchange Language Scholarship. This award seeks to encourage students to pursue language learning opportunities while studying abroad on a business exchange or direct enroll program.
How to apply
Check to ensure eligibility (see eligibility section below).
Apply and commit to a business exchange or business direct enroll program.
Complete the application below by the deadline. As part of the application, students must submit proof of registration in a language course.
Students will be considered for a scholarship based on their responses in the application form, their proof of registration in a language course, and their study abroad program information. Applying to this scholarship has no bearing on a student's study abroad program application.
Upon completion of their study abroad program, students must submit proof of successful completion of the course (transcript or letter from host institution verifying successful course completion) in addition to one or two other deliverables that will be used for marketing purposes.
Scholarship amount - $1,000
The scholarship award will be applied to students’ UMD account.
Application deadlines and notification dates
Study abroad program term
Application deadline
Notification date
Spring semester programs
January 30
February 11
Fall semester programs
September 11
September 23
Eligibility
To be eligible to apply, students must:
be a current business major.
be committed to a business exchange and business direct enroll program.
be registered for a language course (credit or non-credit bearing).
The Smith Global Consulting Fellows program is designed for students who have an interest in the world’s people and cultures and a desire to apply business and language skills to enhancing economic development worldwide and helping others succeed.
Students in Global Consulting Fellows study intercultural issues in global management and learn skills in group research and consulting through two courses: Cross-cultural Challenges in Business, and Practicum in Global Consulting. Students work in teams to conduct research and develop feasible business ideas that contribute to business, social and economic development, especially in emerging economies.
While English is a universal business language, acquiring and mastering a foreign language can often give professionals a competitive advantage when doing business abroad. Language competency can often be the gateway to understanding cultural and societal norms that a business person would otherwise not know. For these reasons, CGB partners with the University of Maryland School of Language, Literature, and Culture (SLLC) to encourage Smith School undergraduates to enroll in language programs.
SLLC offers an array of programs in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish as well as programs that bring together language and business.