JEDDAH — Three MBA students from the Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley, had the opportunity to intern at Dar Al-Hekma's marketing and communications department earlier this month. There has been a long-standing relationship between Dar Al-Hekma University and the US school's International Business Development Program (IBD). Students from Berkeley Haas School of Business who are interested in helping clients redefine how they do business globally apply to the program, which then matches them with international clients based on the students' interests, experience and background. The three Berkeley students, Katerina Barilov, Kavita Patel and Nikita Mitchell, are the fourth batch to visit Dar Al-Hekma University as part of the IBD program. Dr. Saleha Abedin, acting dean of graduate studies at Dar Al-Hekma University, said: “Dar Al-Hekma is pleased to continue its collaboration with Hass School in its management consulting program. “Spearheaded by the distinguished Berkeley faculty, IBD sends teams of their MBA students to provide managerial expertise to clients all over the globe. “Since 2009, teams of Berkeley MBA students have been assigned to semester-long projects at Dar Al-Hekma University. “The projects conducted over the past five years at Dar Al-Hekma have covered a number of important deliverables, including business and strategic plans, feasibility studies, financial analyses, market research and the conducting of leadership and entrepreneurial workshops by talented teams from Haas School.” This year's IBD interns provided recommendations on the strategies used by the marketing and communications department to improve the university's communication and messaging, as well as delivering a workshop on making the most of social media communication. Soukaina Hamidaddin, director of marketing at Dar Al-Hekma, said: “Working with the IBD ladies has been such a pleasure; each one of them had a unique skill and talent to share and support us with. “During their visit a bond was developed between the IBD MBA students and the marketing and communications department in Dar Al-Hekma University, which we plan to maintain.” The three students all came from different backgrounds, but shared the same passion for education and women issues. Barilov comes from an aviation background and hopes to work in the finance sector after graduation; Patel worked in education, specifically public schools, and plans to stay in the educational sector after gaining her Master's degree; Mitchell, who worked in the banking industry with brand strategies, wants to continue her focus on brand strategies after graduation. The three interns were pleased with their experience of visiting Dar Al-Hekma University and Jeddah. Mitchell said: “A tour of Dar Al-Hekma blew us away. This is a beautiful facility and the projects on display show off so much of the students' talents.” Barilov wrote in her blog: “Saudi has felt much safer than many other places we've traveled — even in the US.”
