Students enrolled in a winter course through the School of Management participated in a 10-day tour of India in hopes of learning how Indian culture promotes a quickly growing economy.
The four-credit course, which brought 27 SOM students, ranging from sophomores to graduate students, and two SOM professors to India from Jan. 7 to Jan. 18, was created to offer students the chance to study India in a non-traditional way.
“To learn how to do business, you must first learn the culture,” said Vishal Gupta, an SOM assistant professor on the trip.
Before arriving in India on Jan. 7, the students in the course were required to read a book about understanding contemporary India and write a book report.
According to Gupta, while in India the students were introduced to the American Embassy, PricewaterhouseCoopers India, as well as business professors and students at the Lovely Professional University, a private university of India.
To pass the class and receive credit, students needed to fulfill a few specifications.
According to Gupta, each student needs to complete a case study about one of the businesses they visited. In addition, a group project where any topic related to India, from poverty to food, must be documented into an eight- to 10-minute educational video is due at the end of February.
The students learned how businesses work in India, an opportunity that is not available through many study abroad programs.
“It was really cool to see how businesses operate in different countries, especially India, since a lot of the really big corporations are family-owned businesses where the family are top management,” said Alexa Speed, a senior majoring in management with a dual concentration in marketing and global management.
The group arrived in India late Thursday, Jan. 7, but starting that Monday they met with a different business every day.
According to Speed, the group met with IT companies, retail companies and PwC.
“It was cool because basically we went to these businesses and had conferences for the day,” she said. “We listened to their presentations about the company and asked a ton of questions.”
While in India, the group stayed in a hotel in Delhi and spent two nights in the dorms at the Lovely Professional University, with their e-buddies, e-mail pen pals they were introduced to before the trip.
“It was funny because we got to the university after an eight-hour bus ride so we were all exhausted,” Speed said. “My roommate was in bed about to go to sleep when her e-buddy comes in and is telling her to come to her room.”
According to Speed, India is a very hospitable country and the residents wanted to make sure foreigners have everything they need while there.
“It is a unique culture in some ways,” Gupta said. “We got to adjust to the culture; there is some value in that.”
In addition to the academic aspect of the trip, the students had a chance to tour the areas in which they stayed. Some even went on a bike tour of Old Delhi where they had a firsthand experience riding through the narrow streets of the city.
According to Gupta, the trip was a success and he would like to continue it in following years, with a few changes including extending the trip to 14 days and traveling to locations north of Delhi.
“For me it was a really awesome experience and in general it was really interesting,” Speed said. “It is always nice to study abroad; I went to Greece during my junior year, but I think the nice thing about this trip was you got to see the business perspective. Sometimes you don’t necessarily get to talk to the businesses. I think that was a really cool and rewarding experience.”