The Global Business Institute (GBI) program is a five-week intensive and immersive summer program at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, Bloomington.
The goal of the program is to build entrepreneurial knowledge and skills that students can employ to address issues in their home country, thereby encouraging innovation in their localities and generating jobs while improving economic conditions.
The Entrepreneurial Journey
Students use key entrepreneurial skills and experience American business practices through an interactive and experiential one-month curriculum at IU-Bloomington.
The entrepreneurial journey starts with proven techniques for innovation, ideation, and iteration as they work to develop, test, validate, and communicate an initial business idea. From there, they proceed through an entrepreneurial process to further refine their product, develop a business model, plan initial operations, establish the feasibility of their business, and make an investment pitch.
Students are placed in five to six small teams of approximately four each to work on a group project that will culminate in a final presentation. The project requires students to develop a feasibility study for a business idea to launch in their home country building upon the material that they have learned in the program.
A faculty coach is assigned to each student team to provide individualized guidance and answer questions. At the end of the program, the teams will have 15 minutes to present their work and be questioned by an elite panel of judges, including IU faculty, entrepreneurs, and corporate executives. The judges will recognize the top two teams.
What You Will Learn
Students learn about American culture not only from classroom training, but from formal and informal interactive programming during evenings and weekends as well. They participate in two day-long field trips in which they interact with a variety of business and government officials, and the Washington, D.C. trip will enable them to learn about U.S. government and interact with representatives from the U.S. Department of State. Tentative program dates are July 1 – August 4, 2022.
This program is funded by the Public Affairs Section at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.
Fully Funded
Financial Provisions provided by the support of the U.S. government will include:
- J-1 visa support
- Round-trip airfare from participant’s home country to the U.S. and domestic U.S. travel as required by the program
- Fess of a rigorous academic program in Bloomington, IN and Washington, DC from July 1 to August 4, 2022
- Accident and sickness benefit plan
- Housing and meals during the program
Eligibility Requirements
Participation is for individuals meeting the following criteria:
- Are citizens or permanent residents of Lebanon
- Are not dual U.S. or Canadian citizens
- Are 1st, 2nd, or 3rd year AUB students at the time of application
- Are in good academic standing
- Have limited international travel experience
- Are not family members of employees of the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon
Selection Process and Criteria
The Global Business Institute selection process is a merit-based open competition. The following criteria (not in order of importance) will be used during application review and selection interviews:
- A proven record of leadership and accomplishment
- The ability to work cooperatively in diverse groups and respect opinions of others
- Strong social and communication skills
- An energetic, positive attitude
- A commitment to return to their home country and apply the training to benefit their country
For your application to be complete, please make sure to submit:
- Completed Application (p 3-6) –(Download ,Print ,Fill, Scan)
- Legible electronic copy of the picture/information page of passport
- Copy of official transcript (please do not submit original transcripts)
* All applications must be received via e-mail by November 13, 2021.
Any applications received after this time will not be considered. Please e-mail applications to: sbstserv@aub.edu.lb