Globe and Mail: Well-travelled SFU student wins export award
Jan 09, 2015
Beedie School of Business undergraduate students Rohith Manhas (right) and Viktor Holicek (left) were the recipients of the Export Development Canada 2014 International Business Scholarship.
The following article was published in the Globe and Mail on January 9, 2015.
By Jennifer Lewington.
As an undergraduate student at Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business in Burnaby, B.C., Rohith Manhas decided to take advantage of the international co-operative education opportunities offered by his school.
Even before he graduates this spring, his decision paid an unexpected dividend. Last November, the B.C. Export Awards recognized him as a postsecondary student who excels in international studies and contributes to the province’s export potential.
Three years ago, then a 20-year-old second-year business administration student, Mr. Manhas spent four months in Mumbai, India, on an internship with the Canadian-India Business Council. While there, he worked as a management trainee for Wizcraft, an Indian event-production company, and also carried out research for the Surrey Board of Trade on export-import opportunities for local businesses in the B.C. city.
On one assignment for Wizcraft, he travelled to Chennai for the opening ceremony of the India Premier League of cricket season. “It was a very cool experience,” he recalls. “All the big-shot Bollywood actors were on stage.”
Mr. Manhas, who also studied in France in his third year of studies, says he learned the value of flexibility while working abroad. “Things don’t always go as planned when you are in other countries,” he says. Even something as familiar as a PowerPoint presentation, he says, must be tailored to the local market’s expectations of what to include as content. “You have to have an open mind.”
Mr. Manhas was also one of 30 students awarded $4,000 each in international business scholarships from Export Development Canada. Now 23 and about to graduate, he has landed a job with Accenture, the management consulting firm.