Jenny Sheng, a 2009 graduate of KGI's Master of Bioscience program, will gain invaluable experience as a research assistant in Milan, Italy, this September. There she will conduct research on emerging markets in Russia, Brazil, China and India, culminating in a 50-page report for the Italian investment bank Fondazione Cariplo, which is sponsoring the program.

Hideki Yamawaki, professor of management and associate dean of the Peter F. Drucker and Masotoshi Ito Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University, selected Sheng for the position when she was a student in his business strategy class at the Drucker School. Yamawaki and his former student Luca Barbarito, now a professor at the University Institute for Modern Languages (IULM) in Milan, received a consulting award from Fondazione Cariplo to complete a more comprehensive report due at the end of 2009. That final report will incorporate Sheng's contribution to the project.

As part of the consulting agreement, the investment bank awarded Yamawaki and Barbarito support for a research assistant/student exchange component that covers airfare and accommodations for Sheng and another Drucker student who will travel to Italy, and two IULM students currently assisting Yamawaki in Claremont. Sheng will be housed on the IULM campus.

"It's a great opportunity not only to work for an investment bank and become familiar with another university, but also to gain international experience," says Sheng.

Her emphasis at KGI was in the business of bioscience, and she had already begun a full-time position as a health care consultant for the life sciences industry at Quintiles Consulting in New York when she learned she had been selected for the research post in Italy. "My employer recognized this as a great opportunity and granted me a leave of absence to pursue it," she says.

Important factors in doing the necessary research, according to Yamawaki, are an understanding of the differences in country cultures and working environments. Of why he selected Sheng, he says, "I appreciated her interdisciplinary background. She is a biotech major, but she wants to do economics/management-type research."

Sheng adds: "KGI has a multidisciplinary curriculum that is very industry focused. The variety of information I have learned has prepared me well for a wide range of roles, including consulting, productive development and product management in the life sciences. I gained a set of knowledge that I couldn't have obtained anywhere else in such a short period of time. I couldn't have come across these opportunities if I hadn't had such supportive professors at both KGI and Drucker."

- by Susan Wampler

KGI Background

Educating the future leaders of the bioscience industry, Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) offers an interdisciplinary graduate education through its Master of Bioscience (MBS) degree program and its PhD program in Applied Life Sciences. Using team-based learning and real-world projects, KGI's innovative curriculum seamlessly combines applied life sciences, bioengineering, bioethics and business management. KGI also has a robust research program concentrating on the translation of basic discoveries in the life sciences into applications that can benefit society. KGI is a member of The Claremont Colleges, located in Claremont, California.

Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences is dedicated to education and research aimed at translating into practice, for the benefit of society, the power and potential of the life sciences.