By Ngan Tran and Patrick Slutter
This past August, seven IPED graduated students and three undergraduate students traveled across the world to participate in the Emerging Markets: South Africa course in order to enhance their global finance skillset. The immersive class is part of a two-course sequence that enables students to earn the Emerging Markets and Country Risk Analysis Advanced Certificate offered by the IPED program upon completion.
As part of the course, Emerging Markets students attended lectures on international trade and macroeconomics given by professors from Fordham University and University of Pretoria. The class was also designed to help students improve their research skills and cement their understanding of the differences as well as similarities between emerging markets and established markets. Students were broken into groups that researched and presented on macroeconomic indicators of different markets. Since students in the course came from diverse academic and professional backgrounds including central banking, investment banking, and accounting, as classmates they challenged and learned from one another.
The Emerging markets class also leveraged Fordham University’s established relationships throughout South Africa. Students participated in visits and meetings at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the South African Central Bank and Treasury, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, among other places. They got unique insights on emerging markets by getting the opportunity to engage with policy makers and business leaders.
In addition to learning about South Africa from a macroeconomic perspective, students also got to experience the country’s history, culture, and nature. From the Apartheid museum to Kruger National Park, wine tasting in Franschhoek, and watching football (soccer) Mamelodi, students got to see what makes South Africa a unique global center of the world.
