Most popular study abroad destinations

The University works in association with the Institute for International Studies and the Kentucky Institute for International Studies to offer students a ‘world of opportunities’ with its study abroad programs, held in the summer and during each semester.The Institute for International Studies provides support for international students and scholars, Murray State students studying abroad, international visits and community education.

Murray State also works with the Kentucky Institute for International Studies, a non-profit organization which strives to establish high-quality, low-cost, academically sound study abroad programs for students. The KIIS options for semester programs this year are to Caen, France, Regensburg, Germany or Segovia, Spain during the spring semester and Merida, Mexico during the fall semester.Pallavi Thadhani, a graduate from Murray State with a Masters in Business Administration from Corozal Town, Belize, studied abroad in Paris, France and London, England from January 2-January 10, 2012. He said his experience changed his life for the better in many ways.This was an experience that I will remember for the rest of my life, Thadhani said. “I learned so much from executives of many world-renowned organizations and individuals on my study abroad trip. This trip required the MBA students to be open-minded and accept challenges and situations as they were presented. This experience definitely confirmed my dreams of aiming for a job that includes international traveling.”

KIIS offers thousands of dollars in scholarships each year. For its summer programs, KIIS provides one $500 scholarship for each program and in the fall and spring they provided one $750 scholarship to each program.Murray State encourages students of all fields to study abroad, especially students with majors and minors in a foreign language. Students studying a foreign language are encouraged to attend one of the many summer programs offered, which include countries such as China, France, Spain,Sweden, Tanzania and others. The programs range from 4 to 6 weeks in length.Bonnie Higginson, vice president of Academic Affairs, said she has seen many lives change as a result of study abroad programs.

For many students a study abroad experience can be life changing because they are immersed in another culture and have to step out of their comfort zone as they adjust” Higginson said. “I’ve seen a number of students who have even changed their career goal and career paths.Don Robertson, vice president of Student Affairs, said the study abroad programs are one of the best opportunities at Murray State.One of the things that makes Murray State very unique is its array and variety of opportunities” Robertson said. “I think it is very important that students have the opportunity and that they take advantage of it because we are a very multicultural world and studying abroad will better prepare them for it.

Study abroad in different countries

 Muslims living overseas practise cultural and religious traditions during the holy month of Ramadan more devotedly than their counterparts at home, a newly released study said.Specifically, Muslims living and working overseas said that their actions during Ramadan changed after arriving in their host countries, with half of respondents (50 per cent) saying they fasted more and two in five (41 per cent) practised sharing and giving more.The Western Union-sponsored study ‘Traditions of Ramadan by Global Citizens of Muslim Faith’, was conducted in July by the Nielsen Company and covered Muslims of 11 nationalities living in 12 countries in the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, the United States and Western Europe.

The study found that despite being away from family and loved ones, 96 per cent practised fasting, 89 per cent prayed, 78 per cent engaged in iftar or evening meals to break the day’s fast and 75 per cent read the Quran during Ramadan.The study covered around 550 Muslims emigrants originally from the Middle East and North African countries of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia and the Asian countries of Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.A majority of Muslims (94 per cent) shared their wealth during the month of Ramadan, by giving away money, known as zakat while five per cent of them shared by giving away food and clothing.Two out of five surveyed said love of family and friends, along with dedication to work, were the key factors motivating them to fast, pray and share their wealth.

The respondents were residing in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East; Malaysia and Singapore in Asia; the United Kingdom, Germany and Austria,France in Europe; and the United States.The study said zakat obligation was most commonly fulfilled through sharing with people who are known to the giver locally or overseas (65 per cent). Arab Muslims are more likely to share with people they know locally (42 per cent) than overseas (29 per cent), while the reverse was true for non-Arabs     

Campaign trips abroad by Obama, Romney a study in contrasts

 Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is here to begin his seven-day, three-country foreign trip, a trip that is different in scope and focus from his rival's trip four years ago.President Obama, then a senator, visited eight countries Kuwait,Austria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Germany, England and France over eight days.  Romney’s doing a much smaller tour over one week, focusing on England, Israel and Poland.  John McCain stopped by Jordan, France, England and Israel in 2008, when he was the Republican running for president.

These trips, typical for a nominee in election year, take the candidate off their domestic campaigning but showcase their reception and leadership on the world stage.Obama in 2008 and Romney this year each picked late July to travel, while McCain's trip was much earlier in the year, in March just after he had clinched enough delegates to win the nomination.Romney is looking to home in on strong U.S. allies, kicking off with an emphasis on the so-called special relationship with Britain. He’ll also attend the opening ceremony of the Olympics and meet with athletes, which political observers expect to be a moment to highlight his leadership and work running the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.  The presumptive Republican nominee prefaced the trip with a speech in Nevada at a conference of the VFW, saying, “I am not ashamed of American power. I take pride that throughout history our power has brought justice where there was tyranny, peace where there was conflict and hope where there was affliction and despair.”  He was making an apparent reference to Obama’s 2009 foreign trip, which critics dubbed as an “apology tour” of American strength. 

Romney starts his day Thursday meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron, Labour Party Leader Ed Miliband and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne.He then heads to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres, the leader of the opposition party and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. Romney has been friends with Netanyahu since the 1970s, when both were in Boston and recruited by the same consulting firm.Iran is expected to be the main issue the two will talk about, and the Obama campaign in particular will be watching to see if Romney definitively calls for any military action. Netanyahu's and Obama's relationship has been somewhat tenser, so this could be a chance for Romney to appear a stronger ally to Israel.Netanyahu was cautious about wading into American politics, telling Fox News on Sunday, “I will receive Mitt Romney with the same openness that I received another presidential candidate, then-Senator Barack Obama, when he came almost four years ago, almost the same time in the campaign, to Israel.”

The prime minister has asserted Israel's right to pursue military action to handle Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and Romney has said he doesn’t think Obama has done enough to back Israel's right to defend itself. In December at a GOP debate, Romney said, “I'd get on the phone to my friend Bibi Netanyahu and say, ‘Would it help if I say this? What would you like me to do’?Romney will give remarks in Israel before heading to Poland, where he’ll also give a speech.  Those are the only two formal remarks expected.In contrast, Obama gave a major speech titled “A World That Stands as One” in Germany to 200,000 cheering people in front of the Victory Column in Berlin's Tiergarten Park. He also gave several press conferences on his foreign swing and interviews with all three major broadcast networks, who flew out to sit down with him.Romney will also do some interviews but will not be giving any press conferences.

Obama was criticized for the length of his trip, with some saying he was running for president of the world instead of the United States. He started his trip visiting troops and commanders in Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq and benefited from Prime Minister Nuri al-Malaki endorsing his Iraqi troop withdrawal plan ahead of his trip. Of course, the trip came while the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were still a front-and-center political issue, while now the campaign is mostly about the economy.Romney will round out his trip in Poland, visiting the historic port city of Gdansk and then to Warsaw. He’s expected to highlight Poland as an example of economic and Democratic values. It also can’t be overlooked that making Poland a star is setting up Romney’s positioning and comparison to Russia, which Romney once called the United States’ biggest foe.Romney is not expected to make any major policy announcements on this tour and will stick to focusing on listening to other world leaders.He’s also holding fundraisers in London and Jerusalem. Obama did not raise cash on his trip, but the Romney campaign was quick to point out Obama still used his foreign trip as a tool to ask for cash, asking for donations online after his Berlin speech.

Work-education abroad sets business students apart

 As a third-year commerce student at Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business, Marcel Glaesser spent an academic semester at the University of Mannheim last year. After completing his studies in Germany, he decided to stay longer and landed a six-month contract with BMW in Munich.The coolest thing is that I got to do so many things,” he recalls, citing marketing-related assignments that included preparations for the company’s annual meeting held in a stadium, complete with a display of prototype cars.His experience typifies a growing trend among undergraduate and graduate business students to study and work abroad while earning their business degree. For Mr. Glaesser, Germany held appeal because he was born there before his family came to Canada 10 years ago. He took his classes in English at Mannheim, but had to brush up on his German to work at BMW.

His advice to other students is “go abroad, go abroad. It will set you apart.”The same message comes from Canadian business schools, some with formal and informal arrangements to promote international experience opportunities for students before they graduate.For example, Beedie recently signed an agreement with the British Columbia and Caribbean branches of the Certified General Accountants for an accounting student to spend a work term in Barbados every year.We feel it is a great opportunity for students because they get to work and learn, says Andrew Gemino, associate dean of undergraduate programs.We would love to do more, he adds. “It is a matter of finding those opportunities and working on them.

About 1,700 Beedie commerce undergraduates – about half of the enrolment – are at one stage or another of the school’s co-op program, either completing a prerequisite semester, applying for a placement or actually on the job. Every semester, between 170 and 240 students are actually working, with about five per cent choosing to go abroad.Through a variety of different ways, the students are becoming more comfortable and more interested in working internationally,” says Shauna Tonsaker, co-op education program director.Her office provides financial and other assistance to students before, during and after their work stint. Prior to departure, all students complete an online course to minimize culture shock. This summer, students have chosen placements with major firms in half a dozen countries, including China, Austria,Japan and Germany.

“They get the experience of working in a culturally diverse work environment, gain experience for the first time of living on their own and get a global perspective,” she says. “It is of huge value when they are out there to apply for careers, locally and internationally, and can bring that [experience] to the workplace.Now completing his fourth year at Beedie in business marketing, Mr. Glaesser says the biggest bonus of working abroad was his new level of confidence. “It was the first time working in any big organization and seeing how it works from the inside,” he recalls. “For me, it was really valuable.”

Social media fundraising

For the second year in a row, MBA students at the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University used social media for philanthropic pursuits while on a 10-day overseas study trip.During the for-credit “hot cities” tour to South Africa this year, students used Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to raise funds for Ubuntu Education Fund, a Port Elizabeth non-profit that provides medical and educational support to orphaned and vulnerable children.The students hoped to raise $20,000, but fell slightly short at $18,000. However, the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education recognized the student effort with a gold medal for best use of social media, according to Desautels student Melanie Walsh, one of the organizers.
 
Endowed chair

An astonishing 98 per cent of Canadian businesses have fewer than 100 employees. But a 2010 Industry Canada study found this country lags behind global competitors on several measures of entrepreneurship, such as exports generated by small and medium firms.Exploring the potential for these enterprises to extend their global reach is one goal of a new $2-million endowed chair in international entrepreneurship at the Schulich School of Business.Looking at countries in the world where this culture of entrepreneurship is well developed and looking at the opportunity in Canada, we saw this [endowment] as an opportunity,” says Doug Brooks, chief executive officer of the Certified General Accountants of Ontario, which endowed the chair. “The knowledge and understanding, from a global perspective, to develop an entrepreneurial culture within Ontario and Canada we see that as the way forward from an economic standpoint.He adds that the endowment – one of several relationships between his association and post-secondary institutions and think tanks is a great strategic fit” because his members either work in or for small and medium enterprises.Moren Lévesque, who has taught graduate-level entrepreneurship students at the school since 2011, is the inaugural chair.