Fifteen students, alumni, and friends of the University of Pretoria lived at the Rose Hill campus for five weeks. In the evening, they took business classes taught by Fordham faculty. During the day, they visited prestigious companies in guided tours led by Fordham alumni who now work at those companies, including Jason Caldwell, GABELLI ’10,’17, GSAS ’11, who serves as a vice president of private wealth management at Goldman Sachs; Darlene Checo-Nuñez, FCRH ’17, an account manager at Bloomberg LP; and Brian Joyce, GABELLI ’98, a managing director at Nasdaq. 

“This program far transcends the traditional classroom pedagogy,” Vusi Maupa, a 33-year-old senior policy analyst at the National Treasury of South Africa, wrote in an email. “We had immeasurable privileges of interacting with senior executives and gained tremendous insight into [their work].” 

Maupa, who graduated from the University of Pretoria with his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, said that he participated in the exchange program to learn how to manage financial and economic risks and opportunities in his country and beyond. He said those lessons will help him at his job, where he works in the fiscal policy unit.

“Before the program, I had limited knowledge of strategic financial management and political risk analysis. I am now confident with my understanding and knowledge of these subjects. I will be using the knowledge and skills gained in my professional work,” said Maupa. 

Yuvana Jaichand, a 22-year-old graduate student who is studying econometrics, said that the most interesting part of the program was visiting top companies in the business sector. 

“It is interesting to see how they manage to maneuver through challenges and how they come up with various creative solutions to market gaps,” she wrote in an email. “It was surprising to see how big firms/companies don’t have it figured out all the time and how they learn as they progress.” 

Jaichand, who never visited the U.S. before this summer, said that the program has expanded her perspective on the world. 

“I saw this program as an opportunity to experience the world in a new light and to broaden my knowledge beyond an academic environment,” said Jaichand, who is working toward becoming an econometrician or data scientist. “Fordham has provided the opportunity to experience New York, which is known by many as the financial hub of the world, firsthand.” 

Besides learning about the American business world, the South African students used their first trip to the United States to explore New York City. 

Booi Themeli, Ph.D., director of the exchange program and an associate professor of economics at Fordham, said they were invited to watch the annual Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks show by Gregory Stewart, a deputy inspector for the New York City Police Department.

Shortly before the show began, they met the mayor of New York City, Eric Adams. They also saw The Lion King on Broadway, where original cast member Ron Kunene, a friend of Themeli’s, introduced them to some of the main performers, including the actor who plays Mufasa. In addition, the students visited Boston for a weekend, where they toured Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Boston College. 

The Fordham-University of Pretoria student exchange program was launched in 2007 by the Most Reverend Desmond Mpilo Tutu—archbishop emeritus of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa and a 1984 Nobel Peace Prize recipient who was awarded an honorary doctorate from Fordham in 2005—who aimed to empower the next generation of leaders, said Themeli. 

During past visits, graduate students from South Africa have taken classes at several Fordham schools, such as the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Graduate School of Social Service, and participated in on-campus festivities like the annual Dagger John Day pie-eating contest. Outside the classroom, the students have met people who run world-famous companies and gained a firsthand look at the American way of doing business. The partnership between Fordham and the University of Pretoria has also expanded to include the Ubuntu program, a semester-long student exchange program for undergraduates.

In turn, Fordham graduate students have studied in South Africa, where they engaged with foreign political advisers and policymakers and conducted data analyses with students from across the world. In addition, they attended social events where they met a former South African first lady and CEOs of major banks in South Africa. In August, 12 IPED students will visit the University of Pretoria and take business classes with some of the same students who visited Fordham this summer.

“This program represents one of the focal points of Fordham’s internationalization efforts,” Themeli wrote in an email. “It continues to provide opportunities to South African and Fordham students to study in South Africa and the U.S, thus enabling them to gain an understanding of other cultures that are important in their chosen fields of study. In addition, the program is in line with Fordham’s mission to contribute to economic development and social transformation of South Africa and the rest of the African continent.”

Dressed in green-and-yellow South African jerseys, the group cheered on the New York City Football Club as it went head-to-head with the Seattle Sounders.

“In South Africa, everyone loves [soccer],” said Sharlotte Valoyl. “People play the vuvuzela, and if their team wins, they have a party or will go around campus singing.”

For Mmane Boikanyo, who works as a marketing manager for TuksSport, the University of Pretoria’s sports department, the outing, along with a previous visit to the NBA headquarters in New York earlier this month, allowed her to take notes on how sports are marketed in America. She hoped to use what she learned from those experiences to better promote her school’s sports department.

“Sports marketing in America is quite aggressive,” she said. “There are a lot of products, merchandise, and high investments in digital media. In South Africa, we haven’t caught on yet. We’re mainly focused on talent acquisition and operations.”

Though it poured during the soccer game, the South Africans didn’t let the rain deter them from having a good time. The group put on their ponchos, sat on the bleachers, and shouted excitedly with other soccer fans every time the ball came close to the goal post.

“This group of cohorts have so much energy,” said Booi Themeli, Ph.D., director of the exchange program. “When people come to a new country for the first time, they often feel overwhelmed, confused, or intimidated. But this group is so enthusiastic. They just dived right in.”

Cultural immersion

The five-week exchange program, a partnership between Fordham’s International Political Economy and Development (IPED) program and the University of Pretoria, gives South African students an opportunity to study at Fordham while Fordham students study at the University of Pretoria, and learn about emerging markets. This year’s New York group will visit private and government institutions such as the World Bank, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, ICBC, and Bloomberg. The group will take trips to notable attractions around the Tri-state area and nearby cities, like Boston and Washington, D.C., to further immerse themselves in American culture and business.

“I want to work for the World Bank or the U.N., so the visits to financial institutions have been helpful,” said Pieter Scribante, who is studying economics. “It has been interesting to see how people who studied economics and finance are applying what they learned in the real world, and using their degrees.”

Mapule Mashapha, who is pursuing a masters in educational psychology back home, said taking courses in family counseling and theories of interpersonal trauma at Fordham is giving her an overview of what to expect as a counselor.

“A lot of what we do in South Africa is theoretical so there’s often no practical guidance of what to expect when you actually begin your career in counseling,” she said.

Basisipho Jack, a graduate from the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in Johannesburg, South Africa, said the exchange program has helped her to build connections with other students and engage with the Fordham community. Fordham, like the leadership academy, is a very close-knit place.

“The academy was a sisterhood. We all knew each other’s background and got to know each other like family. Fordham feels like that kind of community.”

Ashley Daswa, the nephew of South Africa’s first Catholic martyr, Blessed Benedict Daswa, said the opportunity to study at a Jesuit institution like Fordham is allowing him to keep his late uncle’s vision alive. He said his uncle always encouraged him to “study hard and be a leader.” A welcome message from Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, was also source of inspiration.

“Father McShane told us that we come from a very great country, and that we are the future,” said Daswa, who works at an investment bank in Cape Town. “It makes you feel like you’re a person who is not only going to make a difference, but is also destined for greatness.”

“This is the sixth year we have partnered with Fordham,” said Bland, a fellow South African. “If you think of how this program started with just nine students—and now we have more than doubled that—it’s pretty great,” said Bland.

Bland himself got a toehold in the United States’ banking industry as an exchange student; he thus understands the value of the program firsthand.

“You get a taste of the city and you see things you’ve only seen on TV, like these buildings,” he said of the New York skyline. “It demystifies a lot of this and shows that if you have the confidence and you work hard, you can do it too.”

The program is a partnership between Fordham’s International Political Economy and Development (IPED) program and the University of Pretoria in South Africa. Students from Fordham go to South Africa to study the economics of emerging markets, while South African students come to New York to take courses in Political Risks and Strategic Financial Management. As part of their New York experience, they also familiarize themselves with the American way of doing business, said Henry Schwalbenberg, PhD, director of IPED. The partnership between Fordham and the University of Pretoria has also grown to include the Ubuntu program, which is a semester-long academic service learning and exchange program for undergraduates.

This summer’s cohort has a unique twist in that 15 of the students are young working professionals from South Africa’s private and government sectors, who are studying alongside nine graduate students from the University of Pretoria.

“It’s a great opportunity to be in the same program as them,” student Keaoleboga Mncube said of the professional students. “It’s a bit of a challenge back at home to get into the workplace, so getting to know them gives us an advantage in networking for job opportunities.”

Some of the South African professionals were comparing notes with their American counterparts. Ropfiwa Sithubi is an audit manager with KPMG in Cape Town. She said that she was surprised by the diversity of the American bank employees, but she wasn’t referring to the way the term is usually employed—she meant diversity of educational background.

“In South Africa, most people choose their career from an early age and that’s what they study, but here we have met people who have studied other subjects, such as engineering, and now they are in banking,” said Sithubi.

Booi Themeli, PhD, associate professor of economics and exchange program director, said that interacting with policy and decision makers outside of the classroom feeds back into the curriculum. Many of the students said that they found their American professors to be well versed in the theory that they study in South Africa, but that the American professors provided more practical knowledge and used more case studies than their professors at home.

Schwalbenberg said that there is also a very profound purpose to the program that should not be forgotten.

“South Africa had a political system of apartheid and people were left out of the economy, and now we want people who were left out to be in the education system,” he said. “That usually takes a generation to change things, but we want to do it faster.”

“Our program is a small part of something big.”

“I’m going back home as a challenged human being, looking for what I can actually do to improve my country and my sphere of influence,” said Rahulani, an economist who now wants to work on improving local government in South Africa.

His classmates reported the same kind of changed outlook after taking part in the growing, thriving summer program run by Fordham and the University of Pretoria. Ending in early July, the program immersed the students in all things New York—from the diversity of the Bronx to the rarefied precincts of international business, where they got to directly question the people who run world-famous companies.

“It’s companies that we work with, but we’re so far removed from them,” said Lulama Booi, a chartered accountant whose study tour was arranged by the African Women Chartered Accountants Forum. “The mix of the theoretical classwork that we do and the site visits has been amazing.”

Begun five years ago with nine economics students, this summer the program hosted 24 students and grew more diverse. While some were pursuing fourth-year honors undergraduate studies (college is three years in South Africa), others were professionals who were sent by their employers.

Most took classes in strategic financial management and political risk analysis through the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. But six took classes at the Graduate School of Education, and next year some will attend the Graduate School of Social Service, said Booi Themeli, PhD, economics professor and director of Fordham’s collaborations with the University of Pretoria.

“Everybody is thinking of how we can broaden the collaboration,” he said.

The six-week program is one of many educational exchanges between the two universities—including the semester-long Ubuntu program for Fordham students at the University of Pretoria—that are growing Fordham’s reputation in South Africa, Themeli said.

“The Fordham brand in South Africa is much bigger than maybe even Harvard,” he said.

Harvard, in fact, was one of the students’ stops during an excursion to Boston. They also traveled to Washington, D.C., visiting the International Monetary Fund and seeing other sights. In New York they visited companies including Credit Suisse, JPMorgan Chase, and Moody’s, where they spoke to the analyst responsible for South Africa’s credit rating.

Seeing their country from the outside gave some of them new ideas about what they want for it. Anri Oberholzer, an aspiring trader, learned that she’d like to eventually play a role in enhancing the country’s educational system. Rahulani, an economist with the South African Reserve Bank, wants to start an institute to help local governments deliver better services.

“With the sort of exposure that I’m getting here, and with the people that I’m meeting here in lectures, they inspire that confidence that actually I can do this,” he said.

In addition to visiting business sites, they soaked up the city through visits to Yankee Stadium, the Bronx Zoo, and other landmark locations. Some of Fordham’s summertime rites also made an impression, like the pie-eating contest at the University’s Dagger John Day, an employee party held in June. “In South Africa we don’t have things like that,” said Nick Mamabolo, who won.

Also interesting to the South Africans was Fordham’s Jubilee reunion weekend, in which alumni from as far back as 1959 returned to campus.

“It has been an eye-opening experience,” said Theriso Pete, an investment analyst. “It was unbelievable, seeing people who were here so long ago and they still love this place, they still come back to this place.”

“We realize how fortunate we’ve been to be here at Fordham,” said Lulama Booi. “What I’ve realized, being here, is that Fordham is maybe a great picture for us of New York.”

“This is a significant day for our partnership, and for the globalization of curricula at our two institutions,” Freedman said. “This commitment between the University of Pretoria and Fordham ensures that our students will be better educated, both as scholars and global citizens, and that both universities will benefit from joint research and a more formalized program of shared publications.”

The partnership between the two universities began with the establishment of the Emerging Markets program in the summer of 2008 under the leadership of Henry Schwalbenberg, Ph.D., associate professor of economics and director of the International Political Economy and Development (IPED) graduate program.

That collaboration has since grown, providing opportunities for research and for program and curricula planning—including the undergraduate Ubuntu Program, a Fordham service learning program established in partnership with the Jesuit Institute in South Africa and the University of Pretoria. Ubuntu welcomed its first cohort in January 2012, and its second cohort of students arrived on the campus of the University of Pretoria last month.

In its second year, Ubuntu has been strengthened by a formal agreement with the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation. The agreement, signed in a ceremony on March 14 in Capetown, South Africa, formally established the Ubuntu Program of Fordham University in Association with The Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation.

The mission of the Tutu Foundation is guided by the concept of Ubuntu. According to Archbishop Tutu, “A person with Ubuntu is open and available for others…knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole.” This concept, closely aligned to the Jesuit tradition of cura personalis, was central in the development of the Ubuntu Program.

During his trip to South Africa, Freedman also presided over the dedication of office space for Fordham University Pretoria, made possible through the generosity of the University of Pretoria and Gerhard Coetzee, special adviser at inclusive banking, Absa (formerly Amalgamated Banks of South Africa Limited), and professor at the Centre for Inclusive Banking in Africa, University of Pretoria. The offices will enable Fordham staff, faculty, students, and visitors to integrate more fully into the campus life of the University of Pretoria.

Father Egan, a native of Cape Town, was referring to the Emerging Markets program being offered by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences’ (GSAS) economics department. It is part of two exchange programs being offered by Fordham in partnership with the University of Pretoria.

Father Egan acts as both programs’ spiritual liaison.

For undergraduates, Fordham College at Rose Hill runs the Ubuntu Program, a service-learning program designed to allow students to take credit courses while providing opportunities for public service.

The relatively quick success of the two Fordham programs bodes well for future endeavors, said Dean Nancy Busch, Ph.D., dean of GSAS and Fordham’s chief research officer. She said the University is already looking to build on new relationships across several departments and disciplines, including history, theology, biology, post-doctorate research in genetics, and agriculture sciences. In a very customized approach, individual Fordham graduate students will be matched up with Pretoria mentors, and vice versa.

The two initial programs got their start in 2008 after Fikile Magubane, South Africa’s then-consul general in New York, reached out to several universities, including Fordham, in an effort to build exchanges.

“We turned out to be the most aggressive institution and immediately sent a delegation,” said Booi Themeli, Ph.D., clinical assistant professor and coordinator of both programs.

South Africa-born Themeli said that the University of Pretoria, once a “breeding ground” for apartheid leadership, now runs an internationally respected business school, the Gordon Institute of Business Science, which is attractive to Fordham for promoting student exchange.

But for all the changes, South Africa remains a country in flux. Divisions that were once racial are now economic, said Dominick Salvatore, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Economics, chair of the department and director of its graduate program.

Salvatore headed to Pretoria this month on an honorary professorship, and will be giving a series of lectures at the university and throughout the country. The Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection, a South African think tank comprising research and policymaking experts, has invited him to be a fellow.

“Unfortunately, not much improvement has been made since apartheid. Inequality is almost as high as it was before,” said Salvatore.

Despite a youth unemployment rate hovering at 47 percent, and an overall unemployment rate near 20 percent, South Africa has growth opportunities, said Salvatore. The economy is the most advanced in Africa and has the highest per-capita income on the continent, barring oil-rich Libya.

“South Africa faces a duality. They have a superstructure that is advanced,” Salvatore said, referencing healthy banking and business sectors and a well-developed infrastructure, “but most of the economy is not advanced.”

The problems are primarily twofold: slow growth and disenfranchised youth. He proposed a two-track solution, one that addresses growth and calls for immediate intervention to address the youth crisis.

“The society will need to grow fast, but growth is a long-term process,” he said. “However, the youth problem can’t wait. They need to do something immediately; it’s a volcano ready to explode.”

Salvatore also said that the country’s powerful unions, once major players in the struggle against apartheid, will need to make compromises with businesses if the country is to move forward.

With poverty and AIDS among the country’s seemingly intractable problems, a service-learning program like Ubuntu is a natural fit, but why study economics in Pretoria and not London or Frankfurt?

“To put it bluntly, you could study in big world financial capitals, but [by]going to South Africa you see the other side,” said Father Egan. “The great games of the global economy come at a great cost, you can see that here in stark relief, and [you can]reflect on those decisions.”

Father Egan prepares Fordham students for their journey through beginning and end-of-term retreats. He teaches a core course in the Ubuntu program, The Story of South Africa, in which students read books by J.M. Coetzee and André Brink, and watch films like Cry Freedom.

Once initiated, the Fordham students bring New York-style integration to Pretoria.
“We’re in a melting pot, so cultural diversity is already here, we know about it, and the new South Africa is in transition to what we already have,” said Themeli.

The Emerging Markets master’s program students—half from Pretoria and half from Fordham—compare data on the South African economy with other emerging and established markets. Each student writes a paper on the nation’s economic prospects.

But what at first glance appears to be a simple economics lab holds underlying lessons, said Father Egan.

“Many of the [South African] students that the Fordham students meet are from poor areas,” he said. “I hope the programs will bring out the element of justice. It’s not that they should find a simplistic solution, but that they develop a desire to find a solution.”

The group attended the Macy’s fireworks display as the finale of a cultural/academic experience that marked, for some, the first time they left the African continent or set foot on a plane.

“I’ve seen fireworks before,” said Peter Maibelo, a post-graduate student at UP, “but . . .  here in America on July 4, they’re something not to be missed.”

Maibelo and nine other University of Pretoria students arrived in late May to earn certificates in Fordham’s Emerging Markets and Country Risk Analysis Program and to experience American culture via New York.

The men and women, who left July 5, were co-sponsored by the consul general of South Africa. They lived on campus in Tierney Hall and, in their spare time, saw much of what the City had to offer.

“Two shows in five weeks! Broadway was amazing,” said Bridgette Layloo, a post-graduate student of economics at UP. “Back home, we don’t really go to theatre.”

“Living in the Bronx was great,” said Maibelo. “It helped us to see another side of the U.S. than what you see in the movies.”

The students also were invited to informational sessions at the city’s leading financial houses, including J.P. Morgan and Credit Suisse.

But UP economics professor Reyno Seymore, who acted as a chaperone, singled out as the trip’s highlight a June 11 visit to the NASDAQ Times Square trading floor to kick off the 2010 FIFA World Cup, opening in their native South Africa, The students joined South African Consul General Fikile Magubane in ringing the opening bell.

“We missed the opening ceremony in South Africa,” said Bernard Mohlakwana, a UP graduate student in economics, “but we had a different kind of opening ceremony right here.”

Following the NASDAQ opening, the visiting students walked from Times Square to New York’s Paley Center for Media to watch the match.

“We were blowing on our Vuvuzellas and wearing our South African t-shirts,” said Maibelo. “Everybody was staring at us and smiling, and it made up for our not being home.”

A few Fordham students joined the South Africans on their outings. GSAS graduate student Loren James enjoyed the chance to go backstage at Chicago, and to visit Washington D.C., where the group toured the Capitol and visited the United States Agency for International Development.

“I would never be able to do these things on my own, so this program has helped me,” said James, who in August 2009 was among the first Fordham students to attend a summer session at UP. “Being able to share Fordham with them—and especially those places they might not get to see otherwise—has been worthwhile.”

Mohlakwana said he found the coursework in risk analysis particularly relevant to his future plans. Each student had to choose a country to study, and Mohlakwana chose Tanzania, which he analyzed for its strength as an emerging developing market.

“Africa is on the verge of becoming the next big emerging market, and I want to be there and see it through,” he said. “This was my first time off the African continent, and I am taking a lot home with me.”

Oudolapo Fakeye, a GSAS student in economics who took classes with the students, agreed.

“What Fordham is doing is monumental,” he said. “It has offered a course on emerging markets and so many African markets are primed to be very big over the next few decades. South Africa is at the forefront. It shows great promise and has political stability. So an exchange between Fordham and UP students is very significant.”

Seymore said that both Fordham and UP have begun listing each institution’s economics faculty members and their areas of expertise, hoping to match up those professors with similar interests. For Seymore, it was a “thrill” to meet Dominick Salvatore, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Economics and the author of International Economics, the textbook that Seymore routinely uses in his UP classes.

“It’s our hope that UP and Fordham will end up with some joint research, which would be good for both institutions,” said Seymore, a specialist in environmental economics and international trade.

“Fordham has embarked on a mission to have academic centers all around the world, collaborations that will benefit both Fordham and our partner universities,” said Booi Themeli, Ph.D., assistant professor of economics, one of the programs’ faculty members. “Now our first South African students have gotten the full American experience.”