Amba Student Of The Year Award: Students from Africa, South America and the USA are nominated this year

Together the finalists for the Student of the Year award, run jointly by The Independent and the Association of MBAs (Amba), illustrate the internationalism of today's scholars. Although they are pursuing very different careers, have very different life stories and hold varied ambitions, their reasons for studying are very similar – they all see the MBA qualification as the means to gain the skills and confidence to take them in new directions and advance their careers.

Jeannette Adu-Bobie was born in Kenya and is now at Imperial College London seeking to understand the growth of deadly bacteria. Lindsey Nefesh-Clarke lives in Paris and works for Enfants d'Aise, the humanitarian organisation that helps children living in desperate conditions. The American Tiffany Wang Lam-Balfour has crossed the globe to take advantage of her Chinese heritage to help her to understand the cultural and business barriers between the East and West. And the Colombian Andrés Barragá*Montaña is passionate about bringing together the arts and business to promote and celebrate local talent in his homeland.

This diversity shows just how far the MBA qualification has grown in breadth and stature since the first awards were given to company managers in the late 19th century, says Jeanette Purcell, Amba's chief executive. Collaboration with other students and team working may be the critical to successful MBA programmes, but in this competition there can be only one winner, which will be announced at a gala dinner this November. It will be a difficult decision for the judges to make when they have finalists of this calibre.

JEANNETTE ADU-BOBIE

Learning to walk again after the amputation of the bottom part of both her legs and an arm must have been hard enough, but scientist Jeannette Adu-Bobie, 36, then set herself the task of returning to work.

Four years after contracting the meningococcal disease that nearly killed her, the British scientist is now leading the pursuit of a low cost instrument to measure bacterial growth, which could save thousands of lives in developing countries.

Dr Adu-Bobie, a specialist in meningococcal disease now collaborating with the Sanger Institute for genome research, has chosen to boost her career with an executive MBA programme at Imperial College Business School in London.

The story of her personal battle and determination to resume a highly successful career as a scientist at the leading edge of research, plus her commitment and contribution to the course, led Imperial College to nominate her forward for the Student of the Year award.

Adu-Bobie, who contracted septicaemia while she was working in New Zealand studying the disease, says the return to Imperial College – where she studied for her PhD – for the two year, part-time executive MBA course has been challenging, but she relished the chance to work alongside a wide range of talented people from many disciplines and careers. "For people with a science background, it is an excellent opportunity to gain necessary business skills and knowledge," she says.

TIFFANY WANG LAM-BALFOUR

At the aged of 28, Tiffany Wang Lam-Balfour is the youngest person ever to be shortlisted for the prestigious Student of the Year award.

She worked as a research associate for UBS Global Asset Management in Chicago, analysing consumer and retail stocks, before enrolling on the international MBA programme at the Antai College of Economics and Management at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China.

While working in the US, she noticed that many large companies were seeking further growth in international markets, particularly in China, and that conversely Chinese companies were beginning to list their shares in the US.

"Many companies try to transplant their operations to a foreign country without understanding the local business environment, which means they face difficulties achieving growth and success," she says. "I figured that being a Chinese-American and a Mandarin speaker, I should be better equipped to understand the cultural nuances and liaise between the Eastern and Western mindsets, potentially becoming a corporate diplomat," she says.

As well as working part-time for UBS in China, she has helped the university to re-create its international MBA website, translated course information and also helped to set up more company visits for her fellow students.

LINDSEY NEFESH-CLARKE

After graduating from the University of Cambridge in 1994, Lindsey Nefesh-Clarke went to New York to work for Human Rights Watch. Now she lives in France and works for the humanitarian organisation Enfants d'Aise, where she is the director of the Philippines programme, which brings food, shelter, medical care and education to children living in slums. She graduated with an executive MBA from the Paris branch of ESCP Europe, the international business school, in June this year

"I enrolled on the MBA because I wanted to gain the business, management and leadership skills that could strengthen my work in the humanitarian field," she says. Finding ways to provide small loans to help people from extremely poor communities provide for themselves is one of her passions. Nefesh-Clarke is also the founder of the Women's Worldwide Web, a not-for-profit online platform that seeks to empower women through small loans to help them establish a livelihood, education, mentoring and networking.

ANDRéS BARRAGáN MONTAñA

Empowering communities is close to the heart of Andrés Barragá*Montaña, 33, who believes entrepreneurial and management skills could lift many talented, creative people in Colombia out of poverty. "This is my life's project: to show that culture and business are not only compatible but also necessary to make an impact, especially in countries such as mine. The precarious cultural scene could be turned into a fertile ground for entrepreneurship if local talent could be handled and capitalised through management," he says.

Earlier in his life, he fought to bridge the divide between arts and science, gaining degrees in literature and industrial engineering while pursuing a successful musical career as a rock guitarist. He also founded a publishing firm that has helped cultural bodies gain publicity and new sources of income. Since starting on a part-time MBA programme at the Universidad de los Andes last year.

"Creativity, art and culture not only benefit from management, but also need it desperately to survive in today's society," he says.