By Stephanie Riel
OpportunityGreaterPhoenix.com

Entrepreneurial women from the Middle East fine-tune their business skills in a series of programs taught by Glendale's Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Through the school's several programs, such as Project Artemis, 10,000 Women, Supporting Entrepreneurs and Enterprise Development Seminar (SEEDS), women from Afghanistan, Jordan and Peru learn leadership skills to become successful business owners in their homelands.

The programs reach out to untraditional students to study at Thunderbird. During their visit the women attend training sessions taught by the school staff, tour Valley businesses, and team up with women entrepreneurs from Phoenix who serve as their mentors, the program Web site said.

"(Our programs) allow people to share their experience and knowledge," said Kellie Kreiser, director of Thunderbird For Good and Thunderbird alum. "It really makes a difference."

Starting in early 2005, Project Artemis was the first of Thunderbird's undertakings. Over two weeks, Thunderbird staff and local businesswomen teach Afghan women how to manage and execute their business ventures.

Similarly, SEEDS focuses on helping Jordanian women plan, develop and grow their businesses. Women in the program attend seminars in leadership, marketing, management and finance. The school recently launched a similar program in Peru.

Funded by public and private donations and grants, the programs operate through Thunderbird For Good, the school's philanthropic effort to promote social responsibility among the school's students and faculty. The project was initiated and planned around guidelines set by Thunderbird President Dr. Angel Cabrera and has been operating since 2004, Kreiser said.

Dr. Cabrera told Krieser that the program should do good, help people be global citizens, and draw upon Thunderbird's skills as a global business educator.

"We knew we could provide knowledge, professors, past and present students, and local relationships," Krieser said. "We had to figure out how we could leverage all of those things and put it together."

Thunderbird For Good has grown to coordinate large-scale projects with large budgets such as Project Artemis and SEEDS, as well as smaller ventures such as partnerships with corporate learning programs, and volunteers to help business flourish in underdeveloped markets.

Thunderbird is partnered with the American University of Afghanistan to provide entrepreneurial business training, an endeavor that is part of Goldman Sachs' 10,000 Women project to help women in underdeveloped countries. The school also collaborates with the American University of Afghanistan, using a curriculum and program guide similar to the Thunderbird For Good programs.

For the future, Thunderbird officials are looking to grow their presence in Latin American and the Middle East, and are considering adapting Project Artemis for a program in Africa.

Participants in the program are not the only ones who are learning. Thunderbird staff who teach for the program also get an education.

"The quality of education in underdeveloped countries isn't necessarily on par with a U.S. education," said Mary Sully de Luque, an assistant professor of management at Thunderbird. Sully de Luque helped develop the curriculum for the Thunderbird For Good program. She also teaches the women when they come to study at Thunderbird.

In her time teaching the women, Sully de Luque has found that some business issues are worldwide.

"The more you get exposed to developing countries, (you find) some problems are universal with business," she said.