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Smeal MBAs Study Sustainable Development In Costa RicaFour Smeal College of Business MBA students spent a portion of their winter break in Costa Rica participating in a program for graduate students designed to showcase sustainable development and highlight ways that business can protect the environment while still making a profit. Smeal MBA students Annette Woods, Kirsten Grenoble, Ian Joseph, and Ryan Peckyno with two guides (center) at a coffee plantation in Costa Rica. Smeal MBAs Study Sustainable Development In Costa RicaUNIVERSITY PARK, PA (January 31, 2007) – Four Smeal College of Business MBA students spent a portion of their winter break in Costa Rica participating in a program for graduate students designed to showcase sustainable development and highlight ways that business can protect the environment while still making a profit. MBA students Kirsten Grenoble, Ian Joseph, Ryan Peckyno, and Annette Woods spent about two weeks on the campus of INCAE, a top Latin American business school in Costa Rica, taking courses and completing case studies with an emphasis on green business. The coursework was complemented by field trips to pharmaceutical research centers, coffee plantations, and the rain forest, among other destinations. The program is sponsored by INCAE and the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. The Smeal students learned of the opportunity through Net Impact, a network of socially minded business professionals and graduate students. The Smeal contingent joined students from Thunderbird, in addition to those from INCAE and Minnesota. Each day started with three hours of class, taught by faculty members from around the world who are experts in sustainable development. After class the students worked in teams to complete case work or other assignments. Field trips explored sustainable development projects in the area, including a trip to a Merck research facility that protects valuable natural resources while exploring the rain forest to discover new pharmaceuticals. During their free time, the students were able explore the Costa Rican countryside and culture. This trip was separate from Smeal's global immersion program, which requires all first-year Smeal MBA students to spend a week in a foreign country, meeting with business leaders and taking courses at partnering universities. The Smeal global immersion program is designed to expose students to the international economy while they gain insight about the particular challenges and opportunities of doing business in another culture and under different regulations. This year's Global Immersion experience will place students in Chile, China, and Turkey. International students will spend a week in San Francisco. For more on the Smeal MBA, visit, www.smeal.psu.edu/mba. REPORTERS & EDITORS: For more information, please contact Wyatt DuBois in the Smeal College of Business Media Relations Office at 814-863-3798 or wed112@psu.edu. Penn State's Smeal College of Business offers highly ranked undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, Ph.D., and executive education opportunities to more than 5,500 students at all levels. Featuring academic departments of accounting, finance, marketing, insurance and real estate, management, and supply chain and information systems, the college is also home to major research centers such as the Center for Supply Chain Research, the Institute for the Study of Business Markets, the Center for Digital Transformation, the Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Center for Global Business Studies, and the Center for the Management of Technological and Organizational Change. Document Actions |
