Marshall Students Explore Chinese Business Opportunities

By ALEXANDER COMISAR 

Nearly 200 students from USC's Marshall School of Business headed to China in spring 2007 to get a first-hand look at why the country is being called the new global

Hang Lung Chairman and USC Trustee Ronnie Chan speaks to the Hong Kong group.

economic frontier.

The two Marshall spring break programs, the Learning about International Commerce Program (LINC) and the Global Leadership Program (GLP) are designed to give first-year students an on-location crash course in global economic education.
 

Brian Chung and other students sample noodles in Beijing.

LINC is offered as a two-unit course that takes students on a 10-day trip to one of a litany of cities around the world, including Hong Kong, to meet with some of the world's most powerful business executives and politicians.

GLP, which also includes a 10-day trip to China during spring break, requires preliminary seminars on campus to be completed during the fall semester and the first part of the spring semester. The program, specifically, is geared toward equipping USC freshman to view the world economy knowedgably, having observed how economies in different regions of the world operate.

Tina Sun, who will begin her sophomore year in fall 2008, traveled to Hong Kong last year with the LINC program and said she found a level of insight abroad that she would not have been able to experience on U.S. soil.

"Every day, we got to visit different corporations ranging from banks to shipping companies," Sun said. "It was so nice to have a goal in mind and to be able to look around and say, 'that could be me in 10 years.'"

Sun also said, aside from the academic and professional benefits, she found a level of cultural fulfillment she did not expect.

"There was one day where we got to meet our college counterparts from Hong Kong University and it was really amazing to see that they spoke perfect english," she said. "You felt like the two worlds connected. they were really curious to learn more about us and we were curious to learn about them."

For more information and blogs from past participants, visit Marshall's website at http://www.marshall.usc.edu/news/profiles/letters-from-china-2007-overview.htm.