Christophe Mombers, Master student in Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences
Unlike many of my fellow students, I did not know I would enjoy the business side of science so much. I always planned to continue in research after finishing my education, until I started doing my research internships. During this period I noticed that I enjoyed the topics that were related to my study, but disliked the day-to-day research tasks and thus would not enjoy any of the research jobs that I always had in mind. To explore other possibilities, I registered for the SBB fundamentals course.
"Harvard teaching method
Although the SBB fundamentals course was intense at times, I later on realized that I enjoyed this course the most of all the courses that I followed during my masters. The highly interactive teaching style that was used during this course (also known as the Harvard teaching method) triggered the group to actively participate in the discussions. I was not used to this at all, but it made me learn a lot faster than the traditional teaching-methods used during most other courses. I think the combination of preparing the cases in small groups beforehand and discussing it with the entire group later on is a great combination and far better than simply discussing the material via “one-way-communication”.
Networking
This course also gave a create opportunity to broaden your network. It gave the opportunity to get in touch with SBB alumni, but also to make friendships with other students. Even though the SBB fundamentals course that I followed has finished a long time ago, I still meet up with some of my fellow SBB students. Many of us started out with this course with the same kind of reasons: we enjoyed science, but would not want to perform the typical jobs that are related to the study that we were enrolled in.
When I look back, I noticed that SBB fundamentals gave me a better understanding of how commercial organizations work. Although there is still a lot to learn, it was a pleasant and powerful introduction to how businesses are being run. In the end, I am happy to have started out with this course and it made me eager to learn even more about science based businesses!"
By Christophe Mombers, participant of SBB Fundamentals Spring 2016 and SBB internship 2016