KNOXVILLE — Spring semester 2011 will be a once-in-a-lifetime global immersion experience for 27 sophomores in the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, College of Business Administration Global Leadership Scholars honors program. For three months, they will be studying, traveling and interning in England and Scotland.
This is the first time on the Knoxville campus that a college is delivering an entire semester of course content abroad. UT Knoxville students have, in the past, taken semesters abroad, but those programs were offered through other institutions.
Spring semester 2011 will be different. During this inaugural semester abroad, the 27 business students will take courses that are a part of the core UT Knoxville business curriculum.
“They would have taken these same courses from the same faculty members had they remained in Knoxville. In essence, we are moving the Knoxville campus to the UK,” said Fred Pierce, co-director of the Global Leadership Scholars program.
During the months of January and February, the students will be in London taking two required business courses from UT faculty members Bobby Mee and Lane Morris. Morris co-directs the Global Leadership Scholars honors program with Pierce.
The students then will travel to Edinburgh, Scotland, on a cultural immersion trip.
After spring break, a week when Pierce anticipates the students will immerse themselves in the global community, the 27 students will embark on an engaging seven-week, London-based internship.
“We expect this internship to be the highlight of the student’s experience at UT,” Pierce said.
Students are being placed in organizations such as Parliament, Zurich Financial Services Group, the Travel Channel, Maxus UK (ad agency), Harvey Nichols (department store), The Hub (start-up incubator), and nonprofit organizations Fair Share and Teach a Man to Fish.
Each student will be required to prepare an internship journal, give a midterm report presentation, write a final paper, and give an on-campus presentation in fall 2011 to faculty and Global Leadership Scholar students taking the semester abroad in spring 2012.
“Spring semester will definitely be a test of the leadership skills I have learned, but I couldn’t be better prepared. I am excited to be immersed in a new culture and build upon the foundation that UT and the Global Leadership Scholars program has started for me,” said Genna Rossi, an accounting major with international business collateral graduating in 2013.
For more information about the College of Business Administration, visit http://bus.utk.edu.
—
C O N T A C T :
Cindy Raines (865-974-4359, craines1@utk.edu)