in a global society, new perspectives
In addition to her focused career goal, Lee also came to college with a few broader dreams. Even though she did not speak a foreign language, she wanted to study abroad. “My family is from Hong Kong, and I really wanted to understand more about different cultures,” she explains. Tapping into the same drive she had used to turn The Stuyvesant Standard student newspaper into a profitable business, Lee tenaciously researched and applied for overseas study programs. In the space of a year, she completed three: a summer program at Oxford University, a fall semester at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and a spring semester at the University of Melbourne in Australia. All are universities approved by Georgetown for students to attend and earn credit toward their degrees. Lee returned with a profound sense that broadening one’s horizons means a lot more than just traveling to a distant shore. Along with gaining confidence in her ability to work in international business and thrive in a fast-paced city like Hong Kong, Lee says that today she has a less rigid sense of success. The experience of seeing so much diversity — from people willing to buy $1,500 designer T-shirts to those who would rather travel on a shoestring budget — led her to reflect on the different aspects of creating a high quality of life. Where she once listed making money as her top goal, she says she now values happiness and the ability to give something back. She secured an internship the summer before her senior year working as a business analyst at Allianz Global Investors in New York City, her fourth summer there, and continues to contemplate a career in banking, but she also is thinking of pursuing a graduate degree in teaching or social work. “If there is a nice job opportunity, I’ll take it, but I’m more willing than I used to be to just see where life takes me,” she explains. A Place in the World
and that the challenge of living and studying in a foreign culture is rich with lessons about global business operations and navigating unfamiliar settings. “To just wander around a different country and soak it all up, even if you never do business internationally, gives you a comfort level and a confidence,” says Lisa Scheeler, an academic counselor who advises all McDonough students who study abroad. She strongly encourages incoming students to take part in one of the 30 approved programs in universities from London to Hong Kong, Morocco to South Africa. “We start talking about it the day they get accepted,” Scheeler says. About one-third of the class of 2010 has studied abroad for a summer, a semester, or a year. Scheeler recommends that students make the most of their time overseas by selecting courses not offered in the United States, such as a cultural overview of the host country. She also urges these undergraduates to immerse themselves in life outside of the classroom. “The value of these programs over time becomes cultural as well as academic,” she explains. “A student will often return from an overseas study program and remark, ‘I was able to get more of a grasp of my place in the world.’” That new enlightenment left the once hard-driving Lee considerably more flexible, but other students report that overseas study had the opposite effect, helping solidify the goals they started out with, while fleshing them out in greater relief. Dave El Helou, also in the class of 2010, is a finance major who spent the
Tivoli Gar dens,
Most McDonough School of Business students say the overseas study experience is transformative,
Denmark
Find out about study abroad at overseasstudies.georgetown.edu Georgetown University McDonough School of Business
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