THE POWER OF COLLABORATION
How Our All-Female Education and Community Engagement Team is Making Big Strides in Business Education fostering meaningful connections and collaborations
As the higher education industry continues to evolve, many academic institutions have embraced the power of collaborative projects and act as a key to driving successful learning outcomes.
MEETING STUDENTS NEEDS THROUGH PROJECT-BASED LEARNING AND EXPERIENCE
Organizations increasingly turn to employees to upskill and reskill regularly in an ever-changing business environment to remain competitive. So, how can business schools ensure students are ready to face today’s workplace?
To meet this changing demand for learning opportunities, business schools must provide learners with the practical skills to thrive in the job market and business world. One solution is project-based learning allowing students to apply their knowledge and skills in real-world scenarios. This type of learning allows students to take ownership of their education and develop problem-solving abilities, communication skills, and creativity by tackling complex tasks.
So, we know business students are looking for a hands-on learning experience they can discuss during interviews with a potential employer.
Austral Education Group provides real-world business challenges from the world’s leading businesses, so students can apply the frameworks they learn in the classroom to practical problems and hone their skills.
Our searchable project platform makes it easy for faculty to find and research the projects that enhance their curriculum. We’ve consolidated hundreds of projects into one searchable database so you can find the perfect project for your skillset and interests.
On our Education and Community Engagement team, each team member brings unique experiences and perspectives to create a culture of collaboration that is innovative as it delivers practical results.
MEET THE TEAM THAT MAKES IT ALL POSSIBLE
Melissa
Holland
Education and Community
Engagement Director
Melissa leads the team, and in this role, she creates immersive, international experiential learning opportunities for students. Melissa has vast experience working in the higher education industry, having spent 9 years at Kellogg School of Management as director of their Executive MBA program and Global Network, among other roles in various prestigious universities. Because of her profound understanding how faculty develops curriculum, she brings the business school insider perspective to our team, helping our team develop different learning products and methodologies to create engaging learning experiences for the programs we collaborate with. She is a member of our senior leadership team and leads a diverse team based all around the world.
Christabel
Omollo
Innovation
Manager
Christabel joins our team from Kenya, where she has been working with schools of management as a learning experience designer, anchoring the programs she designed on adult learning theories and instructional design strategies for performance-based outcomes.
She is responsible for the user experience of all stakeholders in our proprietary Learning Platform. With an endless curiosity, she is constantly looking for ways to bring technology into our products and processes, as well as keeping her finger on the pulse of education trends looking to find innovative ways and develop products to bring to our business school partners.
Agustina
Odella
Agustina is a life-long learner who values continuing her education while helping others do the same.
Based in Buenos Aires, Agustina is our Content, Partnerships, and Learning Manager.
She oversees a team of content and partner developers who are constantly seeking projects based on the specific needs of our programs. In her role, she analyzes and forecasts the demand for projects on our upcoming programs and curates the submissions of corporate partners once they submit a project to be uploaded to our learning platform.
Agustina understands our clients’ needs by having meetings with our university account managers which allows her to source and vet projects efficiently and at scale while looking after the quality, based on scope and learning outcomes. For her, ensuring all stakeholders are aligned with expectations and deliverables and creating an optimal experience is a top priority.
Mariana
Teixeira
Learning
Business Specialist
Mariana Texiera joins our team from Portugal with a wealth of experience in corporate social responsibility and sustainability practice areas. In her role at Austral Group, she supports our clients, helping them navigate our learning projects platform and the various projects available. Mariana joins our programs with crucial experiential learning components from the beginning to define the objectives and begin our search for customized projects when needed. She also oversees the quality assurance of projects and deliverables by students in conjunction with the Content and Partner Development team to ensure all parties are satisfied with the engagements. Finally, she collects feedback from our corporate partners and universities, which the team analyzes to apply the learnings and improve our processes, services and overall stakeholder satisfaction. Mariana gets excited when she can help pair businesses that create a positive impact in their communities or society with the right business school program to propel their growth!
OUR TEAM OF CONTENT AND PARTNER DEVELOPERS
Our dedicated team of content and partner developers is continuously engaging with founders and executives from SMEs globally to understand their challenges and identify where the right program can come into play to help. By leveraging these invaluable relationships, we can help companies gain tangible insights, access to resources, and advice from some of the brightest MBA candidates who can provide innovative strategies and relevant business trends that give participating companies an edge for their businesses growth!
MARGOT BESSER
São Paulo, Brazil
CECÍLIA PAZ
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
MARI HENNING
Düsseldorf, Germany
ANASTASIA MIHAILOV
Richmond, Indiana
Our experiential learning, education, and community engagement department takes great pride in being pioneers with an unparalleled platform to host live projects and connect businesses and universities. Through our carefully thought-out department structure, we can source, identify, and create collaborations that cater equally well to students’ and companies’ needs. These collaborations have been recognized repeatedly for their educational and business outcomes. Register for free on our learning platform today to submit or browse real-live projects!
MBA CONSULTANTS’ STORIES OF IMPACT: ABSOLAR
The best way to learn is through experience, and our experiential learning team is dedicated to providing our University partners with the best possible projects to match their curriculum’s needs and students’ affinity. Our global team is passionate about helping our university partners, students, and corporate project sponsors succeed.
