By Christi Mays
In the midst of all the limitations COVID-19 presented over the last two years, 麻豆视频 business professors have found innovative ways to bring the international business world to campus during a time when students couldn鈥檛 see the world.
Getting down to business
January 12, 2022
REMOTE INTERNATONAL INTERNSHIPS
Since international business students weren鈥檛 able to make their annual treks to places like England and Lith颅uania for the study abroad program, Dr. Michelle Reina arranged to make international internships available for students so they could work remotely with global organizations.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had students doing international internships for the past few years,鈥� explained Reina, who is a professor and study abroad coordinator for the McLane College of Business. 鈥淪ince they haven鈥檛 been able to travel abroad for the past year, I wanted them to have an opportunity to gain some experience and build their resumes before graduation.鈥�
Reina partnered with an agency called Kaya Respon颅sible Travel that provides remote international intern颅ships. Students are placed with organizations abroad based on their area of study and interest, Reina said.
Last year, Sean Reid interned with Urban Life Edible Gardens & Landscaping in South Africa, which specializes in developing urban farming and landscaping for personal, business, and community use. His focus was helping with marketing, social media, and special projects.
Madison Warner interned with VNP Group, the first and leading e-commerce group in Vietnam. Her project was focused on vatgia.com and de颅signing a drop-shipping workflow for their large corporate clients.
Abigail Johnson was placed with an organization in Morocco called The Voice of Amazigh Women, a women鈥檚 rights advocacy organization that works with women who suffer from discrimination.
A typical week for the students consisted of a check-in meeting with the country director, a meeting with their supervisor, a cultural workshop to learn about the country鈥檚 culture, and a weekly chat with a person their age who lives in the country.
鈥淭hey seemed to enjoy the experience!鈥� Reina said.
STUDENTS 'MEET' FAMOUS MEME CREATOR
Dr. Jim King鈥檚 Culture and Global Business class was supposed to go on a study abroad trip to Morocco last year, but the trip was canceled. Thanks to Zoom, he was still able to treat his students to guest speakers from all over the world. King had about 20 speakers from several countries, including six from Morocco. One of the guest speakers was actually a student his 2007 study abroad class met during a trip to Morocco 14 years ago.
鈥淚 took a team of four business students to Morocco in 2007 to train Moroccan university students on how to support microenterprise development training,鈥� ex颅plained King, who is a professor and graduate program director. 鈥淭hree Moroccan university students were as颅signed to hang out with my four US students, and they became great friends.鈥�
King was able to arrange for several of his students from the 2007 class to also be on the Zoom call with the Moroccan guest speaker. 鈥淚t was the first time they had seen each other in almost 14 years, so it was pretty cool to see!鈥� he said.
For his Global Social Enterprise class, King had some unique Zoom presentations, including Justin King, who works for Saudi Aramco in Saudi Arabia, and Jimmy Dorrell, the founder of Mission Waco/Mission World and pastor of the Church Under the Bridge in Waco.
鈥淗e talked about creating for-profit revenue streams in a not-for-profit organization,鈥� King said. 鈥淲e also talked about how COVID-19 has hit not-for-profits and social enterprises.鈥�
One of his most notable guests was Nick Sawhney, the creator of a viral inauguration meme of Bernie Sand颅ers that was widely shared on social media platforms.
Sawhney, an IT graduate student at New York Uni颅versity, experienced instant fame when he released a Bernie Sanders mittens meme generator.
鈥淭he big takeaway from this is that I got lucky with a really funny thing that people happened to like, which allowed me to escape the imposter syndrome," Sawhney said, explaining that the 鈥渋mposter syndrome鈥� is a sense that some people 鈥渄on鈥檛 belong鈥� in a particular industry which can make them second guess their ability and hold them back from pursuing their dreams.
LITHUANIA AND 麻豆视频
In the 2021 spring semester, Associate Dean for McLane College of Business Larry Locke offered an international business law class at 麻豆视频 in which half the students were from 麻豆视频 and the other half were from LCC, which is located in Klaipeda, Lithuania. Locke has been working for the last five years with LCC International University (formerly Lithuania Christian College) as a faculty mem颅ber and research fellow.
鈥淭he provost at LCC and I came up with this idea last fall to offer this spring,鈥� Locke said. 鈥淚t is the first ef颅fort for us, but we are hopeful to repeat it in the future. My initial impetus was that we had business majors, especially international business majors, in our college who could not travel abroad due to COVID.鈥�
All of the class meetings were on Zoom and were held synchronously at 8 a.m. for 麻豆视频 students, which was 4 p.m. in Lithuania. The students were paired into two-person teams for presentations and other group projects so that they got a chance to work with some颅one on the other side of the Atlantic. Students on the LCC side were from Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Nigeria.
鈥淭hey did extremely well in the class, as did our 麻豆视频 students,鈥� Locke said, even though there were several challenges to work through. Locke explained that LCC uses a different form of syllabus and learning management system. The university also had a different spring break, and their daylight savings time was two weeks after ours. Students also read from two textbooks (one from the US and another from the EU).
鈥淢aking the class look like one class to the students was quite a challenge,鈥� Locke admitted, saying he often ended up doing a lot of work twice. 鈥淏ut just having the opportunity to hear each other鈥檚 questions and assump颅tions about the world was invaluable. They also became friends, and one of our 麻豆视频 students set up an online birthday party for one of the LCC students! In the end, McLane College of Business really brought the world to campus in a time when students couldn鈥檛 see the world.鈥�
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