Student Ambassador

Costello MBA global residency experience: consulting project with Circle Care Clinic in Dubai, UAE

Greg Johnson — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 21:25:23 +0000

Costello MBA global residency experience: consulting project with Circle Care Clinic in Dubai, UAE Greg Johnson Wed, 07/24/2024 - 17:25

Each summer, MBA students at the Costello College of Business at ��AV travel abroad as part of their global residency experience. The goal of the global residency experience is for these students to fully immerse themselves in the business culture of the country they are currently visiting. This year, four cohorts traveled to Greece, Japan, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), each having unique experiences based on their destination.

Cohort in front of the Burj Khalifa

During the global residency, the agenda includes site visits at companies ranging from multinationals to startups, delving into their business practices, and learning about the local culture with scheduled tours and events.

As Nirup Menon, professor of information systems and operations management and the faculty lead for the UAE trip, put it, “Sure, reading about doing business in Dubai is useful. But conducting a competition and market analysis for geographic or product scope expansion in Dubai gives students specific and lasting impressions about global business.”

John Davis, the Costello MBA student ambassador, shared his experience and the project he and his team completed in the UAE. Their consulting project aimed to leverage their analytical skills and fresh perspectives to enhance Circle Care Clinic's services and operational efficiency.

The following project recap is written by John Davis, Costello MBA student ambassador.

Project Overview

Our consulting project focused on analyzing Circle Care Clinic's current services and facilities. My team and I conducted multiple meetings and site visits with Circle Care Clinic’s business director Joe Hawayek, immersing ourselves in the clinic’s daily operations to understand its strengths and areas for improvement. We also received great feedback from Mr. Hawayek: “Partnering with the Costello MBA program has been a transformative experience for Circle Care Clinic. Their insightful analysis and strategic recommendations have provided us with a clear roadmap for enhancing our services and expanding our footprint in the UAE healthcare landscape.”

Recommendations

At Circle Care Clinic

Our top recommendation was expanding the services offered by Circle Care Clinic. Recognizing the growing trend and necessity of digital healthcare, we proposed integrating telemedicine services for specific specialties such as dermatology. This addition would broaden the clinic's reach and cater to the increasing demand for convenient and accessible healthcare options. Furthermore, we suggested introducing additional specialties and expanding current ones to attract a wider patient base and provide more comprehensive care. Specialties such as dermatology, women’s health, and orthopedics were highlighted as potential growth areas based on our market research.

Our analysis also covered the strategic expansion of Circle Care Clinic to a third and fourth location within the UAE. We identified optimal locations based on demographic trends, population density, and competition analysis. The recommended sites were selected to ensure maximum accessibility and convenience for potential patients, aiming to solidify Circle Care Clinic's presence in the region. The expansion strategy included detailed plans for resource allocation, marketing, and phased implementation to ensure sustainable growth.

Takeaways

Sightseeing in the desert

This consulting project with Circle Care Clinic in Dubai provided us with valuable insights into international business and healthcare. We navigated the UAE’s healthcare market, learning about its regulations, cultural nuances, and operational challenges. This experience enhanced our understanding of global business and equipped us with skills to thrive in diverse settings. Our team demonstrated analytical prowess and strategic thinking, contributing to the clinic's vision of exceptional healthcare services. This collaboration benefited both Circle Care Clinic and us, allowing us to bring together everything we learned throughout the course of our MBA program and provide insights and actionable growth plans to an established business in a foreign country.

Topics

Costello College of Business News

Costello College of Business Students

Learn more about the Costello MBA

In This Story

Nirup Menon

Master of Public Health student advocates for community health as This is Public Health ambassador

John Brandon Cantrell — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 13:34:13 +0000

Master of Public Health student advocates for community health as This is Public Health ambassador John Brandon C… Mon, 09/26/2022 - 09:34

Explore Mason's MPH Program

Topics

Public Health

This is Public Health

Jacqueline Clabeaux led an inclusive social media campaign on the value of exercise in the public’s health for the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH).

Jacqueline Clabeaux , MPH 2023

Master of Public Health (MPH) student Jacqueline Clabeaux knows that leading communities to practice healthier lifestyles is a key role for public health professionals. That’s why she focused her ASPPH This is Public Health (TIPH) Student Ambassador social media campaign on educating people on how to improve their health while strengthening their local communities through physical activities.

“When public health is working at its full capacity, that’s when you see the most inclusiveness within communities and populations because everyone is on board to solve a problem and make their community a better place,” Clabeaux said. “I knew that most people understood what exercise is and how it impacts your body, so I took another approach and focused on how exercise can impact populations and communities.”

Clabeaux, a student-athlete for Mason’s swim team, concentrated her campaign on community building after learning from her MPH coursework that community is an essential factor in an individual’s life and health. Her campaign educated TIPH’s 30,000 followers about how they can improve their community’s health through more physical activity, such as working out in a community gym or swimming pool, exploring scenery in local neighborhoods, and spending time with others while exercising. These types of activities support individuals’ physical, behavioral, and emotional health.

Uplifting Community Health

Her week-long takeover on TIPH’s Instagram and Twitter accounts consisted of graphics on how exercise impacted her life and how exercise aids the public’s health. She also provided ideas to encourage others to exercise within their community. In doing this, she considered physical differences and community demographics to ensure her campaign was inclusive of diverse populations.

“If you live in an area where health resources are scarce, there is a higher chance that this can negatively impact your life compared to areas where health resources are abundant,” Clabeaux said. “If I could spread awareness about exercise and how it can impact communities, there is hope that this topic can build upon a community’s overall health.”

Clabeaux continued, “I wanted to make exercise look more fun to engage in and potentially entice other people to build a network of people to exercise with and that people can look at exercise in a different and fun way that can make an entire community healthier and happier.”

Students who pursue a TIPH student ambassadorship lead national presentations and campaigns to raise awareness of public health education, careers, and issues. In the past, Mason’s TIPH student ambassadors led awareness campaigns on growing a career in public health and bringing attention to the historical public health disparities affecting specific populations.

Moving Forward

For Clabeaux, being a TIPH student ambassador was a rewarding experience where she could grow as a public health professional.

“The most important lesson I learned is how to be more inclusive with how I word my posts,” Clabeaux said. “For example, some people do not have the ability to work out due to physical limitations, disabilities, etc., so I had to make sure that I was using inclusive words so that everyone would benefit from my posts.”

After graduating with her Master of Public Health degree with a concentration in epidemiology in 2023, Clabeaux aspires to continue her education and become a physician’s assistant, a career where she will help communities learn the value of exercising to improve their health and aid in disease prevention.

“I’ve had a passion for the medical field since I was very young, and my goal was always to become a medical professional of some sort when I was older,” said Clabeaux. “I found that the human body is capable of many extraordinary things, and I would love to learn as much as I can about our bodies and share it with others.”