Amba Student of the Year: A commitment to change

Peter Brown finds out what drives the best students to excel

Susan Mawemuko has come a long way and seen a lot of change in her lifetime, despite being only 33-years old. The eldest of five, she grew up in Kyanja, then just a small village in central Uganda, but now enveloped by the rapidly expanding capital, Kampala.

There she spent the early years of her life with her grandparents. "My grandfather inspired me," she says. "He was the village chief and health inspector. I watched him operate and I learnt a lot of leadership skills from him."

Those skills came into their own, first during Mawemuko's job as a programme officer in Uganda, and then during her MBA at the Bath University's School of Management. Now they have won her the title of Amba Student of the Year.

In its 13th year, the competition, run jointly by The Independent and the Association of MBAs (Amba), highlights the value of the MBA to businesses and individuals looking to improve or change their careers. The finalists are nominated from students at Amba's accredited business schools.

At a ceremony in London this month, Pippa Watkins, from The Independent, pointed out that the contestants, reflecting the MBA itself, came from every continent. The judges, she said, were looking for a commitment to development and an ability to take on challenges. Those qualities perfectly describe Mawemuko. In Uganda, where education was generally reserved for men, she gained a place at Makerere University, the biggest in the country. There she studied social sciences before taking a Masters in social sector planning and management. By then she was working for the university's school of public health, where she spent eight years, ending as a programme officer tasked with improving the professional management of health initiatives.

The programme was a success. "We have managed to build capacity within the country," she says. "HIV/Aids used to be a big problem, and attracted a lot of stigma. Now it's openly talked about and people can live with it as long as they can access anti-retroviral drugs within the clinics the government set up."

Mawemuko oversaw the grants disbursed within the programme through proper financial management and contracting. "People give the money for particular causes and it's right that it should go to their intended beneficiaries. I used to manage a huge volume of money – millions of dollars – not only for HIV/Aids programmes but also for reproductive health, malaria and tuberculosis. That was my portfolio," she says.

She was learning on the job, but realised her qualifications had not trained her for such responsibility – she needed an MBA. But why Bath? "It has very good content," she says. "There is a module on personal leadership and career, which helps you identify and develop your potential, and that attracted me. It also attracts a high proportion of women."

The course was a shock at first. "I had limited exposure to the outside world [until then]. Suddenly you are sitting in this lecture theatre and the teacher is drawing examples from China, Singapore or Japan." Her classmates helped her adjust. There were 51 of them, of 23 different nationalities. "We all learnt from each other. It was a very rich experience." And she was mentored throughout.

The degree, she says, has transformed the way she thinks and how she presents herself. "I'm a different person now than when I began – more confident."

Having completed the course she returned to her employer, who sponsored her MBA, hoping to move into senior roles. In the long-term, she is considering starting a business.

This year, as Student of the Year, she will become an ambassador for the MBA. She intends to set up mentoring clubs for potential MBA students all over the world and provide coaching and guidance to young women interested in pursuing a career in management.

The other three finalists all showed the same determination as Mawemuko. Ali Shivji, whose MBA was from Insead, dreams of running a set of hospitals in the developing world. Baya Tuvshintugs, originally from Mongolia, took her MBA at ENPC School of International Management, in Paris, and believes business tools can be used to create a better society. And Will Coetsee, from South Africa's Stellenbosch University's Graduate School of Business, is passionate about social entrepreneurship combining art, culture and business.