A World of Business at Smith

From right: Mikkel Andersen & Norma Athamary - two of the exchange students at Smith attending a global strategy class

Brian Wallace is American, studying for an MBA at the Smith School of Business, and spending the fall semester at a business school in Germany. Norma Athamary is Peruvian, studying for an MBA at ESADE in Barcelona, now spending a semester abroad in the U.S. at Smith. Both students are profiting from the Semester Exchange Program managed by Smiths Center for Global Business in partnership with top business schools worldwide.

In addition to Wallaces German sojourn, youll find Smith students in Hong Kong, Melbourne, and Copenhagen this fall, while students from schools in Bangalore (India), Hong Kong, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Grenoble (France), Koblenz (Germany), and Milan are studying at Smith.

Mikkel Andersen is an MBA student at Copenhagen Business School, one of the largest business schools in Europe. Andersen chose to study at Smith partly because of its information technology focus, but also because he can live in multicultural Washington, D.C. The Smith MBA program also has a culturally diverse student body, with students from more than 25 countries. Athamary notes, ESADE is international, but most of the students are from Europe. At Smith, when we discuss business in China, there are Chinese students in class with first hand knowledge and experience.

Lisa Barnard, program manager at the Center for Global Business, says that Smith MBA students returning from a semester abroad cite benefits beyond learning about a new culture or a different way of doing business: For many students being placed in a foreign environment helps them learn as much about themselves and their values and beliefs as those of the country where they are studying, Barnard says.

There are also certain fringe benefits to studying abroad that are very important to hard-working MBA students. When we spoke to Brian Wallace -- whos spending a semester at WHU Business School in Koblenz, Germany -- he was on his way to Oktoberfest in Munich.

Not a bad way to spend the weekend for a Maryland MBA student!

The mission of the Center for Global Business is to bring an international business perspective to all aspects of the Smith School. In addition to the Semester Exchange Program, the center offers 7-10 day international study trips. This year study trips are planned to Shanghai, Scotland, Ireland, Chile, and France. The center also organizes global business seminars and language programs. And, the center can help Smith MBA graduates gain international work experience through its participation in a national consortium, the MBA Enterprise Corps. This year, Lars Benson, MBA 2002, is working in small enterprise business development in Azerbaijan. Benson was placed through the MBA Enterprise Corps.