Spring weather hasn't fully arrived to campus, but Pitt's Spring Break begins next week. A group of our master's students are packing their bags for an exciting trip.
The Katz Global Research Practicum (GRP) is a three-credit course with a study abroad component offered through the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate School of Business that gives students firsthand exposure to current issues affecting the global marketplace and challenges them to consider issues from a global perspective. The GRP is open to all Katz MBA students as well as select students from other graduate programs who meet Pitt’s global experience requirements and maintain a 3.0 GPA. Using site visits, field research, and conversations with executives, students develop skills and perspectives that they can take with them into future careers.
Twenty students will participate in this spring’s program, “Scotland and Sustainable Development: The Inclusive Economy and Promoting Full and Productive Employment and Decent Work for All,” including ten enrolled in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. Focused on the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 8, which aims to ‘promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all,’ students will travel to the Scottish cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow to gain a perspective on business practice and theory in Scotland, develop an appreciation of the impact of history, economics, and culture on the practice of management and functions of business in the region, and formulate new approaches to doing business in both Scotland and the United Kingdom more broadly.
Second-year student Shelbi Henkle (MID ’25) is looking forward to the trip and the chance to learn from Scotland’s response to issues of economic development.
"As an international development student, I am looking forward to learning how Scotland has navigated economic development and how the US can apply those principles here,” she said. “I am excited for the hands-on experience provided by Katz and the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs to expand my worldview (and eat some very good shortbread)!"
This 2025 program builds upon last year’s Global Research Practicum – Asia (Japan), which discussed aspects related to an aging population and innovation for continued economic growth, while providing a new context from these questions in Europe. It also taps into the unique Sister City Partnership between Glasgow and Pittsburgh, established in November 2021, something Harry Harkins (MPIA-MBA ’26) pointed out when discussing his expectations for the trip.
“I am looking forward to delving deeper into the Pittsburgh-Scotland ties: the history, the legacy today, and opportunities for future collaboration now that Glasgow has become one of Pittsburgh’s newest sister cities,” he explained.
Harkins also noted that the trip held both personal and professional interests for him, sharing, “My academic and professional interests center on international business, specifically foreign direct investment (FDI), so I am motivated to learn how American companies invest in Scotland and vice versa. I also have a personal motivation to learn more about Scotland because I have partial Scottish ancestry, and so I am curious to see the way my family members would have lived before they immigrated to the United States.”
The Katz GRP is supported by European Studies Center and the Nationality Rooms & Intercultural Exchange Programs and is just one example of the international experiences available for our students to augment their learning here on campus. Additional opportunities, as well as funding to support these experiences, are available directly through the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and take place during the regular academic term, in summer sessions, or as a part of a double-degree program.