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Army Officers Helping to Bring Back IMBA Program's Arabic Track


Army's Arabic Track students

In the early 1990s in the aftermath of the first Gulf War, the Moore School of Business suspended the Arabic Track of its International Master of Business Administration (IMBA) program. This fall, four active duty officers in the U.S. Army are leading the way to formally reinstituting the Arabic Track in the fall of 2006.

Captain Robert Zanca, Major Levi Dunton, Major David Hibner, and Captain George Walter are back in the classroom after serving in the Middle East, primarily in Iraq. “We’re learning how to study again,” says Walter.

The Moore School plans to bring the Arabic Track online for perhaps 10 -15 military personnel in the IMBA Class of 2008, says Dr. Martin S. Roth, executive director of the IMBA program. [They would enter next fall.] “We will offer a longer, more language-intensive version open to all students within one year after that.”

Interest in Moore’s Arabic Track is coming from the military -- especially because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and also from private industry, particularly oil companies drilling for oil in the Middle East.

“Our Arabic program aligns itself directly with the military’s and the government’s goal of training more Arabic speakers,” says Patrick D. Hanly, director of alumni relations at Moore. Hanly, a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel, was instrumental in negotiating with the Army to bring the four officers on board this year as a military assignment. “We’re excited about this,” he says. “Arming our military people with the ability to converse [in Arabic] sends a wonderful message.”< /p>

In lieu of the usual 5-month internship required of IMBA students, the Army officers are expected to do a language and cultural immersion, hopefully in the Middle East, perhaps in the United Arab Emirates.

Zanca, 35, a native of Bossier City, Louisiana, is in military intelligence and holds a master’s degree from Grambling State University. He has served twice in Iraq for a total of 15 months. Dunton, 32, who comes from Chewelah, Washington, is a helicopter pilot. He spent a year in Iraq and three months in Kuwait. Dunton earned a bachelor’s degree at Gonzaga University in Spokane. Hibner, 32, an engineer from Michigan City, Indiana, spent seven months in Kuwait and four months in Iraq. He holds a master’s degree from Purdue University. Walter, a 31-year-old engineer from Edisto Island, South Carolina, is a graduate of West Point; he spent three months in Iraq.

All of them know a bit of Arabic from their time in the Middle East. “We learned rudimentary commands such as ‘stop’ and ‘halt.’ I also learned how to say ‘please’ and ‘thank-you,’” says Dunton.

The men are finding the IMBA program challenging. “It’s very intense academically,” says Dunton. For Hibner, who is married and has three young children, going back to school means fitting in classes along with his family responsibilities. “When I started college in 1991, I just had to worry about me,” he says.

Zanca is enjoying the diversity of the students and faculty, and also the fact that Moore’s IMBA program “is not traditional at all.” Adds Walter: “We’re interacting with people from so many places and so many places in life.” He lauds the Moore administration for being “extremely accommodating to us, because we are in a different situation” than other IMBA students.

All four intend to make the Army their career. “By signing up for this program, we’re in it for the long haul,” says Dunton. It’s likely that all will return to the Middle East in some capacity once they have their IMBA degrees in hand in 2007.