International Business Dual Degree Major
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About the Major
Elon’s international business dual degree is a four-year program designed for students who want a truly global education and have strong interests in living, working and studying business abroad. Students spend their first two years on Elon’s campus and their last two years in Germany, France, Italy or Spain—giving them a competitive edge in the global marketplace.
Jobs in International Business Dual Degree
- Global logistics/supply chain manager
- Consultant
- Global marketing manager
- Global banking/finance manager
- Research analyst
Past Elon International Business Dual Degree Internships
- Mercedes-Benz Vans
- Germany Trade & Invest
- Interparfums Luxury Brands
- Rödl & Partner
- GoPro
Related Majors
Two degrees in four years on two continents: Grad got double dose of international business experience
Growing up in a small town in western Pennsylvania, Libby McKivigan knew from a young age that she wanted to one day step out and explore the world. So when it came time to look for a place to attend college, she googled “best study abroad schools.” Elon University was the first to pop up in her search.
Further digging revealed Elon’s dual-degree program for international business majors, which offers students the opportunity to study business for two years at Elon and two years at a university in Europe before graduating with two bachelor’s degrees.
If you’re trying to get the most out of your college degree, if you’re really trying to learn the most and expose yourself to the most and set yourself up for success, then this is the program to do it.
As someone who was interested in pursuing a business career in sales in addition to immersing herself in other cultures, McKivigan saw Elon’s program as the perfect fit.
“I didn’t want to just study abroad for a semester or a year — I really wanted something that would change my life and have more of a lasting impact,” McKivigan said. “So the dual-degree program was the best of both worlds. I still got to have two years of a typical American college experience, but then, after two years, have a different experience in France.”
In 2024, just a few months after graduating with a Bachelor of Science in business administration from Elon and a Bachelor of Science in international management from NEOMA Business School in Reims, France, McKivigan began working full time at a software company in Paris and is living her dream. She says attending Elon and enrolling in the dual-degree program was the best decision she’s ever made.
“I earned two different degrees, I have friends from around the world, I did internships in both countries, I did a thesis — I did as much as you possibly could in four years,” she said. “If you’re trying to get the most out of your college degree, if you’re really trying to learn the most and expose yourself to the most and set yourself up for success, then this is the program to do it.”
Her first two years on Elon’s campus were packed with classes: Not only did she need to squeeze in all of her business school graduation requirements, but — having taken only basic French classes in high school — she also had to take a load of French courses to prepare herself for the language and cultural differences she would face. Among her classes: French phonetics — where her professor, who had once lived in France, scattered in lessons on important slang phrases — and a French literature class, where, because there were less than a dozen students, she and her classmates were able to individually meet with the professor and talk in French about the reading assignment.
“To be able to talk fluently for 45 minutes one-on-one was awesome and super beneficial,” she said.
Despite the rigorous schedule, McKivigan found time to take advantage of leadership opportunities on campus. As a first-year student, she joined Elon’s Women in Sales organization — networking with successful sales alumni and taking part in various workshops — and became its president the following year.
Also in her sophomore year, she became a peer educator for the Elon 1010 seminar course customized for first-year dual-degree students. There, she helped students build their four-year plan for tackling the ambitious program.
That experience helped her when she made the leap to France. At NEOMA Business School, she took classes with other dual-degree students from around the globe and took on a similar role in leadership. Through the school’s student government, she was one of 15 juniors from multiple countries who worked with 15 first-year French students who would be spending their latter two years in another country. Her work as a peer educator at home and abroad — and how she was able to foster community across cultures — led to Elon awarding her the 2024 Dean’s Award for Exemplary Global Engagement in the category of “Study Away Student.”
McKivigan said her professors at Elon were instrumental in helping her with the transition, even texting her when she was abroad to check in. “There are not too many students in your classes [at Elon], so your professors can really form a connection with you, which is something that I really appreciated, because I always had someone in my corner able to answer my questions.”
In addition to her many business courses at NEOMA, McKivigan took regular French classes and learned European business etiquette, from how to format a resume to the best ways to sign an email. As part of the dual-degree program, she was required to spend her final semester interning full time — which she did at the software company Yoobic in Paris as a pre-sales intern — and writing her thesis, for which she focused on the gender pay gap in technology sales.
While McKivigan had done two internships in the States — at Insight Enterprises as a business development representative and at McKesson as a sales support intern — she found that the internship in France was much more hands-on.
“I found that in France, they put much more emphasis on their interns, meaning that interns are treated like full-time employees with full-time employee workloads,” she said. “In France, it’s like, ‘We’re giving you projects, we’re giving you jobs, you’re talking to clients.’”
The internship was so successful, Yoobic offered McKivigan a full-time job after graduation. Today, she works as a junior associate solutions consultant and will be traveling to companies around the world to give personalized demonstrations of the software, or proofs of concept, to potential clients.
“I really like sales,” she said. “I really enjoy talking to different people, and that’s kind of an extension of the dual degree program in the sense that I talk to people from all around the world and I get to go visit them and see what their culture and work-life balance is like. That’s what really drew me into business — I just really like learning about other people.”
Did You Know?
- Upon completion of the programs, students receive a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Elon and a Bachelor of Science in International Management from one of the partner institutions: ESB Business School at Reutlingen University in Germany; NEOMA Business School in Reims, France; Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Piacenza, Italy; or Universidad Pontificia Comillas in Madrid, Spain.
- Before leaving for their studies abroad, students aim for advanced language proficiency as rapidly as possible. For those with no prior experience in their target second language, Elon helps tailor a program of study that includes coursework on campus as well as summer language coursework so the students are engaged in year-round language acquisition. The program works closely with the World Languages and Cultures Department to ensure appropriate language proficiency prior to departure.
- While abroad, students apply what they have learned in their business courses into practice through a semester-long, full-time internship. During their final year abroad, they are also required to complete a significant undergraduate research portfolio.