USU students represent U.S. in Netherlands
Seven students from Utah State University represented the United States at the Erasmus Conference, a management and human resource conference, in Groningen, Netherlands, March 26 to 30. Out of 100 students representing eight different countries, USU and Weber State University were the only two U.S. schools present.
“It’s a great opportunity for our students to have real-life interaction across cultures,” said professor of Management and Human Resources Ronda Callister, who attended the conference as the international management adviser.
Students were chosen to go to the conference based on essays they wrote concerning why they should represent the United States at the conference and what they expected to gain out of attending the conference.
Mary Jo Blahna, adviser for Management and Human Resources and coordinator of the event from USU’s side of the spectrum, said the selection committee also looked for students who had international experience as well as students who were unfamiliar with international travel.
Of the 23 USU students who applied for the conference, Kristee Adams, Ange Davison, Colin Booth, Jenny Ferguson, Curt Schiller, Charles Dan Smith and Wendy Poppleton were the seven students selected to attend.
The students received a stipend to cover the conference registration but had to pay for their own travel.
“The idea behind [the conference] is to help people learn to communicate across cultural barriers,” Schiller said.
The conference provided students with the unique opportunity to learn about teamwork in an international setting as well as to live with a student host: giving them the occasion to experience life in a different culture for the week.
Students were placed into nine international teams to perform research and presentations. “It really took us out of our safety zones,” Poppleton said.
The most challenging obstacle the groups had to overcome, Poppleton and Schiller agreed, was in tearing down preconceived stereotypes.
Schiller said his personal philosophy’s validity was proven at the conference. “My philosophy is ‘difference breeds difference, and similarity is the union to understanding.’ In other words, focus on what you have in common, and the differences won’t be stumbling blocks to achieving your goals,” he said.
Schiller also found it interesting to note how easily it is to misunderstand each other on an international level. “What means one thing on one continent has a totally different connotation across the world,” he said.
But he said this was overcome by explaining what terms meant cross-culturally and by “starting with similarities; look for reasons you’re the same. When you look for things you have in common with people, the differences naturally fall out,” Schiller said.
Booth said it was important to “get the mindset of the Europeans.” The teams had to realize they could be effective as a team and could succeed despite cultural barriers, he said.
Davison said the most useful tool she learned was the “international teamwork experience of it all. Working with people that come from all different backgrounds and different languages [proved] extremely useful.”
“[The conference] provided me with practical and valuable international management experience. I learned a lot about international negotiation,” Booth said.
“Nothing means education like experience,” Schiller said. “This is experience that constitutes the highest learning because you live the teachings. It’s the best course work I’ve had in my academic career,” Schiller said. “It’s the single best class you can take.”