By Josh Siatkowski | Lead Writer
Baylor’s business school has launched two new embedded, week-long study abroad experiences, offering a less expensive, more schedule-friendly alternative to summer and full-semester programs.
The McBride Center of International Business is taking applications for its new Embedded Development through Global Engagement program this spring. Students can earn three credit hours in a class centered on a trip to one of three destinations, two of which are new; they include Munich, Germany, Lisbon, Portugal and Mongolia.
While many term-long abroad programs cost $10,000 to $20,000, EDGE costs $5,500 and offers significant scholarships ahead of its Nov. 15 application deadline.
“Our dean would like us to have more affordable programs for study abroad, so that we can expand access, so that more students can do it,” Dr. Christina Iluzada, an associate professor and the assistant director for the McBride Center, said. “And we would really like to see a hundred percent of our students in the business school have study abroad experiences.”
For the Munich and Lisbon trips — in March and May, respectively — students will take BUS 3330: Business Communication and Practices Across Cultures. In each of the two 20-person sections, the class will meet weekly to prepare for the visit and discuss culture elements unique to one city.
Students interested in the Mongolia trip will take Judge Matthew Wright’s MGT 4320: Negotiations and Conflict Resolution course, which includes the opportunity to join a diplomatic delegation in Mongolia this May. Wright’s Mongolia experience has been ongoing for several years but was remarketed this year to fit the two new EDGE programs.
Dr. Jason MacGregor, an accounting professor who will lead the Munich trip this spring, said the trip will include a mix of business and sightseeing. Beyond trying Bavarian pretzels and seeing the world’s oldest cuckoo clock, company visits will range from some of the country’s newest startups to its historic engineering and industrial sector.
“This is a city where the buildings are hundreds of years old, but it’s also Europe’s Silicon Valley, and so we’ll be dealing with billion-dollar AI companies,” MacGregor said. “We’ll also get to visit the BMW factory so you can see things. But then some of the businesses are older. Last time I was there, we visited a porcelain company that’s been in business for 300 years.”
The associated course will not require major-specific work; instead, it will focus on storytelling, another area of MacGregor’s expertise that he uses while working with nonprofits. Germany in particular is haunted by its role in World War II, and MacGregor said he wants to help students understand how the nation has told its story through visits to places like Dachau Concentration Camp.
“Most of us have had a moment where we are not proud of what we’ve done in our life,” MacGregor said. “A moment where we’re a little ashamed, and we’re trying to recover. How do we integrate that into our story without defining us by that moment?”
For MacGregor, who has led numerous study abroad experiences, the cost savings are one benefit. Another is that EDGE lets students become global travelers without sacrificing an important summer.
“The business school has always suffered from that challenge,” he said. “Our best students have internships. But all our study abroad is in the summer, so students are forced to choose between this unbelievable necessary work experience that is going to lay the foundation for their career, or a study abroad which is going to help with their professional identity and all the benefits.”
With 40 seats across the Lisbon and Munich trips plus a few more for Mongolia, the new program is around 75% full as of Monday. Applications will remain open until Nov. 15, and $3,000 scholarships are available for all students in need. Because the program is in its first year, Iluzada said scholarship opportunities will be more widely available in future years.
“If a student has need, they can go to Munich or Lisbon, all-in, flight included, for $2,500,” she said.
