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Students are getting the message: a short study-abroad program provides an exciting way to meet new people and experience a difference culture—with the logistics taken care of and some college credit to boot. The latest trip—to Rome—took fifteen participants to some of the world’s most famous monuments and even wove in shopping as a class assignment. Like all study-abroad programs, it was offered through the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER).

“They don’t have large malls in Italy and have few chains, so we went up and down the streets to see the many small boutique shops and restaurants with their highly specialized stock, such as one with men’s shirts only, one with fruits and vegetables, and another one with lasagna and salad,” said Randall Martin, faculty director of the study-abroad programs and a member of the Department of Management and International Business in the college. “The interiors might be ten feet by six feet and feel crowded with four customers. But when you put a shop in 500-year-old surroundings, you don’t need anything else to attract people, and the Italians have a long history of supporting small tradesmen.”

Discovering how retail works in Italy gave students the chance to interact with local businesses, a standard feature of the study-abroad programs. The experience had an unexpected impact on first-time participant Kristina Hernandez, an international relations major and secretary in the modern languages department at Florida International University.

“I was speaking in Spanish with the owner of a souvenir shop,” she said. “I discovered that he had studied in Cuba and had lived in Miami before moving to Rome, where he owns several souvenir shops and restaurants. I mentioned my grandfather, who was a famous journalist in Cuba, and found out that even though I had never met him, this man had. It was incredible to be able to report this discovery back to my family.”

From small shops to the grandest of architecture, Rome delivers.

No trip to Rome is complete without visits to the famous sites, and the study-abroad program made it easy.

“We were just three blocks from the Vatican, so we couldn’t get lost,” Hernandez said. “We saw the Sistine Ceiling, the Pantheon, the Coliseum, the Forum, and many paintings. Since I have taken art history courses, I was able to explain the significance of what we were seeing to my classmates.”

Carolina Garcia, also on her first study-abroad, was ailing from the flu and asthma on the last day, but summoned up the strength to make it to the top of the dome of St. Peter’s Cathedral—no small achievement for even the hardiest of visitors.

“I didn’t want to miss this experience,” said Garcia, an accounting major who works in the accounting office and the spa at Trump International Sonesta Beach Resort. “We took an elevator halfway and then climbed the remaining 220 narrow, twisting steps.”

Students enlarge their circle of friends and understanding of international business.

“I am eager to travel again,” said Hernandez, who admitted to having a very hard adjustment on her first time away from her family. “Some of us got very close, and since being back, we’ve gone out together every night and may go on another trip together soon.”

“I came back with ten new friends,” Garcia said. “I also came back with a big learning: in order to do business with people from other cultures, you have to respect their cultures. Business is global, so you have to communicate with people in a mixed group—such as ours, in which we all had different beliefs and cultures. The same will be true in business.”

Study-abroad programs are fast, fun, and in demand.

The study-abroad to Rome took place from December 27, 2006, through January 6, 2007. It also included a side trip to Florence. Students spent a portion of each day in coursework, packing in even more value to the days.

Higher fuel prices and the weakened dollar have made the programs more costly, yet their popularity is growing. According to Martin, the trip to Paris, scheduled for March 16-25, 2007, and which can accommodate 25 students, filled up almost immediately when it was announced in January, 2007.

“Students realize that an international experience like this looks good on their résumés, and parents appreciate that their sons and daughters are traveling with a group,” Martin said.

To find out about the many study-abroad programs offered by the college and CIBER, visit: http://www.fiu.edu/~ciber/.

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© 2007 FIU College of Business Administration