On the flatlands of northern Italy's Veneto, an hour by train from Venice's exotic canals, the Consortium of Universities for International Business Studies is tucked into the heart of the small town of Paderno del Grappa. The campus, with its mixture of old and new buildings and towering trees, is home to Italian high-school boarding students as well as a group of graduate and undergraduate students from universities across the United States. They mingle together in the school's central quadrangle and play soccer on the university's fields. In their midst are the Filippin monks who serve as teachers and administrators at the boarding school and consortium faculty drawn from 39 American land-grant colleges.
Joan Gabel, a legal studies scholar at the Robinson College of Business, has taught a course on the international legal environment of business for the past two years at the International Consortium, of which RCB is a member. The summer sessions allow students to earn core business credits with classes taught in English in an international setting. Gabel finds the novelty and diversity of the Italian setting expands students' willingness to explore new concepts. "They are having horizon-expanding experiences before your eyes," Gabel said.
The program is just one of a portfolio of study abroad opportunities at the RCB that take students from the tip of South America to the Far East. The trips not only reinforce business coursework but also teach students about other cultures and, ultimately, about themselves. "You get out of your bubble and see the way other people live and do business," said Tiran Avdar, who participated in a study abroad program in Toulouse this spring. "It is enriching. Not only do you learn about the people in other countries, but also about yourself."
Vive le difference
The three weeks of classes in Toulouse taught in English by professors from France, Germany and Australia focused on European management, European information technology and marketing practices in France. Supplementing the lectures, visits to companies such as Airbus and Alcatel gave students personal interactions with the European business world. A visit to a family-owned vineyard was the occasion for a lesson on e-commerce, as the owners discussed their consideration of using the Internet to market their wine.
Brooke Thomas, a part-time MBA student who works at SunTrust Bank in corporate marketing and who went on the Toulouse trip, said she learned as much outside the classroom as in class. "I learned the most about French culture by just living in Toulouse for three weeks," said Thomas. "The French value quality of life more than anything else. They take time for coffee breaks and dining. They use this time to see their friends and enjoy life."
Whee Jin Jung, a business manager at NikeTown Atlanta's Phipps store, whose Toulouse trip marked the completion of his MBA, made the same assessment: "Quality of life is so important in France," he said. "Most of my free time was spent with the local students. This proved to be the most influential class that I had there. I learned so much about why the French think the way they do on issues from our President, the death penalty, abortion, vacation time, family, religion, racism and other topics that I would never have learned in the traditional classroom. I can honestly say my experience in Toulouse was a life-changing one." In fact, the Toulouse trip had such an impact on Jung that he is now pursuing employment opportunities that will allow him to either work in Europe or travel extensively there.
