Summertime Consulting In Sri Lanka:
Students Use Vacation to Improve Business Abroad

In the summer of 2011, students from the University of Maryland were given the unique opportunity to participate in volunteer consulting projects, draw on their business school teachings and real world experience to make real impacts in Sri Lanka business initiatives. Sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Facilitating Economic Growth in Sri Lanka program is designed to address economic disparities created by conflict in the northern and eastern regions of the country. In partnership with this USAID program, the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business’s Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), Center for Social Value Creation (CSVC), and School of Public Policy sent a team of graduate students to Sri Lanka for two weeks of the summer. MBA and MPP students came from a variety of backgrounds and got right to work on economic and social initiatives with the English-teaching facility Jesuit Academy, fish culture and production company Aqua N’ Green, and the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka.

Over the two week period, students were able to participate in meaningful consulting work while immersing themselves in both the landscape and culture of Sri Lanka. As one student put it, at the end of two weeks—

“I can ride in a tuk tuk with my eyes open, can eat the local curry without five glasses of water (maybe two) … [but] I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the beautiful Indian Ocean right outside my hotel.”

UMD students at the Jesuit Academy were tasked with developing the business capacity, management, and accounting capabilities of the Academy staff to help them create a more sustainable business. The Jesuit Academy of the Tricomalee district provides courses in English language instruction. In Sri Lanka, demand for knowledge of English has increased with its economic growth. Additionally, many see English knowledge as having the potential to harmonize relations among disparate ethnic groups.

Students at Aqua N’ Green analyzed the company’s supply chain management and developed a marketing plan for the company. Aqua N’ Green’s model of cage culture fish farming has proved invaluable to many of the residents formerly affected by conflict in the East. Students marveled that the company, with just over one year of incorporation, has “helped local families affected by the nation’s conflict and the 2004 tsunami while maintaining a sustainable and profitable business.”

The mission of the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka is to use Information Communication Technology (ICT) to facilitate the peaceful social and economic development of Sri Lanka. Students consulting with the Agency drew on writing and web development skills to provide technical assistance in the creation of the annual report for the ICT Investment and Private Sector Development Program.

As many of the students noted, the experiences of the trip lent “perspective on the history and culture of Sri Lanka” while allowing real-time positive input and contributions to critical Sri Lankan initiatives. The combined impact of meaningful consulting projects, cultural immersion with the country and with their hosts, and what one student calls “an amazing group of students” has truly made this trip memorable for all involved.

Quotes taken from the CIBER Fellows blog, found at blogs.rhsmith.umd.edu/ciberfellows.