By Alex Marino, Staff Writer
If you haven’t made your way into the Herberger building since Foundations, you may be unfamiliar with its internal operations. Venturing through three glass doors, down the narrow corridor, and into the back offices is housed the Global Recruitment Operations Center (GROC). The GROC, guided by several fearless recruitment administrators, is operated by your fellow T-Bird students who spend grueling hours screening and recruiting potential future T-Birds from all corners of the globe.
On any given day the diverse crew can be heard on the phones conversing in three, four, or even five different languages as they discover and guide T-Birds home. This meticulous process is detail-oriented and encompasses an array of campus functions to promote the Thunderbird mystique, but the focus of this article is on the current World MBA Tour jumping off throughout Latin America. Destinations for the tour this month include Mexico City, Mexico; Bogota, Colombia; Lima, Peru; and Sao Paulo, Brazil. Representing Thunderbird abroad are its fearless GROC leaders Amber Steinbeck and Katie Purcell Prado.
Now if you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting these two ladies, first I would advise you swing by the GROC and add a valuable acquaintance to your network, and second be aware that the work they do is what identifies “misfit” global leaders, guides them to our oasis in the Glendale valley desert, and consequently preserves our authentic Thunderbird culture. On that note, our representatives are currently engaged in a work-intensive recruitment operation in the previously mentioned Latin countries aimed at promoting the Thunderbird brand, and drawing new talent for the coming semesters.
Thunderbird Recruitment travels to Colombia (Photo courtesy of Katie Purcell Prado)
How does the Thunderbird global recruitment process work?
Thunderbird administrators are engaged in a partnership with the digital portal QS Global Business School Events, which allows our representatives to target prospective students all over the world, and organize forums to make an introduction. Forum resource strategies include setting up coffee chats, one-on-one meetings, and alumni events to promote the Thunderbird brand globally.
Next, the GROC sends out prestigious administrators to on-site locations to make the connection with prospective students and meet with alumni doing business in the country. Additionally, Thunderbird campuses in Geneva, Moscow, and Dubai are helping to promote and facilitate operations throughout Europe. According to Amber Steinbeck, Senior Director of Enrollment Management, “cross collaboration among Geneva, Moscow and Dubai hubs…boost awareness of what Thunderbird is doing, and these types of events brought us twenty of the current students this Fall.”
Amber also acknowledges that “this is a critical process because we are seeing top quality students while gaining great exposure for Thunderbird, and we doubled the amount of stops this year (87) compared to last year (46), with a strong emphasis back in Europe and Africa.” In addition to QS, GROC administrators utilize “The MBA Tour” research business school website portal to identify and recruit prospective students that exemplify the T-Bird style and passion for global business.
In total, the World MBA tour for Fall 2016 will cover nine Latin American cities: Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Lima, Mexico City, Guadalajara, Bogota, San Jose, and Panama City; fourteen U.S. and Canadian cities: Vancouver, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Miami, Dallas, Houston, Denver, Salt Lake City, San Diego, and Phoenix; two Middle Eastern cities: Doha and Dubai; eight European cities: Moscow, Paris, Milan, Madrid, London, Munich, Frankfurt, and Zurich; and twelve Asian cities: Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Shangai, Hong Kong, Taipei, Manila, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Bangkok, and Ho Chi Minh City.
From the eight city tours completed, T-Bird representatives have already made contacts with 156 prospective students throughout eight different countries. The global recruitment tour is being led by Amber Steinbeck, Katie Purcell (Associate Director of GROC), MaryAnne Riodique (Assistant Director of GROC), Sogol Homayoun (Assistant Director of GROC), and other Thunderbird facilitators who believe in the mission to extend the brand globally. If you see these T-Birds around campus, be sure to thank them for representing us with such passion and vigor as they embark on their recruitment journey’s to maintain the quality, reach and effectiveness of our diverse culture.
Thunderbirds in Bogota (Photo courtesy of Katie Purcell Prado)