Michigan’s multidisciplinary action projects take students to Mongolia

On heading to Mongolia in March, Nikhil Gudikandula, a student at the Stephen M Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, had little idea what to expect. If anything, he guessed it would be a fairly tranquil scene, with images of sheep and nomadic horsemen usually coming to mind.

But as soon as the former Intel employee landed, he saw something quite different. “I was pretty surprised by how advanced and developed the city of Ulaanbaatar is,” says Gudikandula, who was there for an internship with the United Nations Business Development’s (UNBD) Ulaanbaatar branch.

His trip was a result of his school’s interest in multidisciplinary action projects, or MAP, which help students gain hands-on experience. These programmes also recognise the importance of getting a taste for managing day-to-day business in a real workplace as early as possible.

Kwon Soojin, the Ross School of Business director of admissions, says that is why students are required to embark on MAP in the first year of their studies.

“MAP is the ultimate immersion experience,” Kwon says. “Throughout their first year, MBA students take core classes to build their fundamental understanding of business, and MAP is their opportunity to [practice] what they've learned in the classroom with real-world application.”