Far From Philadelphia, Students Think Globally During a Week in Greece

Entering his fourth year at Drexel, finance major Nick Cataline had participated in three Intensive Courses Abroad through LeBow and Drexel Global. In September, he took part in his fourth, and the standout elements of that visit to Athens, Greece form a list that he keeps adding to: “The food, the culture, the weather, the water…”

The list of qualities that made Greece an attractive destination for an Intensive Course Abroad is even longer: as the gateway to the east in southern Europe and the birthplace of democracy, it also has experienced, in its recent history, both a major financial crisis and economic revitalization. Ahead of the start of fall term, 22 undergraduate students along with several faculty and staff members, set out to experience all of this—along with learning and networking, and everything on Nick’s list—for themselves.

The Athens ICA brought together longtime Drexel partner International Study Programs (ISP) and a first-time collaborator, the Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB). AUEB faculty and business leaders teamed up for impressive site visits, including to KPMG’s Greek office for a primer on family business development and to the Bank of Greece, the Greek equivalent of the U.S Federal Reserve, for economic analysis of the 2009 financial collapse and subsequent “bailout” by other countries in the Eurozone.

Dana D’Angelo, clinical professor of general business, served as organizer and lead faculty member for the program. With support from Jodi Cataline, clinical professor of general business, and Jackie McCurdy, senior director of undergraduate student services, D’Angelo and the students kept up a rigorous schedule over their weeklong visit.

“We had so many prominent speakers, both from AUEB and the business community, and the students really stepped up in terms of being well-read, respectful and engaging with the presenters,” D’Angelo says.

Apart from the boat excursion to the islands of Moni and Aegina that opened the trip, Nick Cataline says he most enjoyed meeting with the owners of Inagros, an agriculture management startup, and learning about the company and the small-business presence in Greece through AUEB’s Athens Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

“There are so many entrepreneurs and small-business owners that it really seems like part of their culture,” he says. “It tells you about the resilience of the people there, and it was really inspiring to me.”

For Kara Kleinbach, a fifth-year marketing major, this was her first ICA and her first visit to Europe. One standout moment of the trip for her was the site visit to COSCO, operators of the fifth-largest shipping port in Europe. On a bus ride across a shipyard the size of a small city, Kleinbach and her classmates were up close with cranes and other machines operating full tilt and stacks of shipping containers looming overhead.

“It felt almost like a ride at Disney World. It was a really special hands-on experience that very few people get to have.”

Both D’Angelo and Kleinbach noted the importance of having students record their thoughts and reflections in journals throughout the trip.

“I felt like writing in the journals, instead of on our phones or laptops, helped us to be more engaged and focused and to ask more questions,” Kleinbach says.

Those reflections and experiences will inform the students’ approach to a fall-term course, Thinking Abroad: Exploring Business Culture (BUSN 350), where they’ll sort into groups to choose a topic from their time abroad, research it in greater depth and create a video presentation.

In addition to helping him fulfill requirements for a minor in international business, Cataline feels he has benefited from all four ICAs — Amsterdam, Lisbon, Zurich and finally Athens — in contrast to the standard study-abroad experience.

“Rather than spend six months in one country, I’ve visited four in four weeks,” he says. “It’s another way of immersing yourself in another culture, which is the best way to learn and to develop a global mindset.”