For Sullivan Warren (M.S. in Global Commerce ’26), the decision to pursue graduate school was rooted in optimism—about where business can take people and how it can connect them across borders and cultures. Raised in Fernandina Beach, FL, she earned dual bachelor’s degrees at Florida State University in Finance and Marketing, with a minor in International Affairs. The summer before her last year at FSU, she went on study abroad to Eastern Europe, a learning journey through Kosovo, Croatia, and the Czech Republic that she says “totally transformed my undergraduate experience.” As such, Warren was eager to find a program that matched her curiosity and momentum.
UVA McIntire’s M.S. in Global Commerce (MSGC) immediately stood out. Warren felt that the program would expand her worldview and challenge her to apply her skills in multiple contexts and multiple locations. “So that’s why I chose it. Because it’s like a capstone of all my undergraduate experiences,” she says, reiterating that she wanted more opportunities to learn beyond the borders of the U.S. And discovering that the MSGC took students in the spring to Germany, she decided it was the ideal choice.
From there, Warren’s time in MSGC has unfolded as a fully immersive introduction to global business—one grounded in hands-on learning, collaborative leadership, and a cohort model that mirrors the realities and relationships of professional life and the complexities of global commerce itself.
Experiential Learning at its Core
At the heart of Warren’s MSGC experience is a belief that meaningful learning happens through sustained engagement. She points to the program’s Social Impact Project (SIP) as a major reason she chose McIntire.
“I definitely thought that the SIP project that we do at the end is really cool. When I was looking at different programs, I hadn’t seen anything like that. Most of the others only had two weeks visiting somewhere. But I like that we’re studying in a full exchange,” she says, referencing the fact that students spend the fall on Grounds at UVA in Charlottesville in a cohort with student peers from ESMT Berlin before spending the spring in Germany and closing out the program in a third location of their choice to complete their SIPs.
The structure aligns with how Warren learns best.
“If I’m going to do something, I want to learn, and I want to be on the ground,” she says. “I’m very much an experiential learner.”
Preparation for SIP begins during the fall semester and deepens further once the cohort arrives in Berlin. “We began preparing for [the project] about midway through the Charlottesville UVA experience,” Warren explains, “and then we go deeper when we’re in Berlin.” For her, the German capital represents opportunity as much as location. “Berlin is perfect,” she says, highlighting her excitement for a city that embodies global commerce in action.
A Cohort as a True Community
If experiential learning is the engine of MSGC, the cohort is its foundation. Students progress through the program together rather than rotating through mixed classes, forming close relationships that extend well beyond the classroom. Most students also live together, further strengthening those connections.
“Even before school starts, you get to know at least part of your cohort,” Warren says. “And you learn to live together.”
As manager for a global house that included both UVA and ESMT students, she helped facilitate communication and community building. “As a house, we all came to be like, ‘You can ask questions. Let’s communicate,’” she says. Over time, that openness transformed how students worked together. “The communication got a lot better, and that was really cool to see.”
Because of her role as house manager, she also became the MSGC delegate, serving with a elected delegate from UVA and a student from ESMT to give her peers a voice among faculty and staff. “We worked as that middleman to facilitate the communication and understand what was actually needed by the group, and we also planned some fun events.” Many of those included recreational activities like hiking and holding potluck dinners and movie nights.
Those relationships have had a direct impact on academics. “We’ve got a real bond,” Warren says, “and that has improved the academic side of our collaboration too.”
Living and learning alongside classmates from around the world also deepened Warren’s global perspective. “I learned a lot about the value of the ‘why’ behind a statement,” she says. “Because everyone has a different perspective.” Courses like Global Challenges provided structure for those discussions, while everyday interactions made the lessons tangible.
Career Readiness through Real Work
MSGC’s hands-on approach shows up early and often. Within weeks of starting the program, students are placed into a consulting project with a real client—an experience that immediately clarifies expectations.
“Right off the bat, we had a consulting project where we were working with the Graduate by Hilton,” Warren says. “That project was higher stakes because we had an actual client and we took it seriously.”
The project required students to quickly identify strengths, leadership styles, and communication preferences within a diverse team. “We discussed who’s team leader? Who’s naturally a leader? Who works that way?” she says. “How are we getting this done?”
Those early experiences working with a real company set the tone for the rest of the program, reinforcing skills Warren notes are directly transferable to the workplace. “That project emphasized that we’re in a global cohort and we’ve got a lot to learn,” she says. “That was valuable because it set us up for the rest of the semester.”
Arriving in Berlin for orientation on Jan. 5, she views the next phase of MSGC with excitement and confidence. “It’s really special that we have cultural competencies taught through this program,” she says.
For Warren, McIntire’s MSGC program offers more than global exposure. It delivers an immersive, relationship-driven education that prepares students to lead with curiosity, empathy, and confidence—wherever their careers take them next.
