The Summer of 2023 I was entering into my last year of college. I was scared, I was excited and I was choosing what classes I needed for the upcoming Autumn quarter. That is when I got an email from the UW Bothell Business school. They were offering a new business class that you had to apply to get into: BBUS 491 Business Consulting. Intrigued mostly by the mystery of the class and the fact that it was a project based class I applied. To my surprise, I got in. I didn’t need the credit, I never even thought of consulting before, but I decided to take the class anyway. This turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made.
The class was led by Surya Pathak and Brooks Gekler, who quickly became my favorite teachers during my time at UW Bothell. This was the first time I had a class with two teachers and the first time I had a class size so small, it was about 12 people. These two factors combined made it the most engaging class I have ever had. The two teachers had a banter that was unmatched. They talked to us like we were having a conversation, instead of them just lecturing. We all quickly got to know one another, because we got thrown into our project day 1. We were tasked with a project from Boeing to develop strategic airline and non-airline partnerships for our teams assigned Airlines. How exciting! Being a student it feels like you rarely get to work on real projects and put your knowledge to use, but here it was. Over the course of the quarter we all worked relentlessly on the project and we (students and professors) really started to bond. One day in class the Professors announced that they were co-leading a study abroad program: the MBA Global Study Tour to India. The program is designed for MBA students, but they were opening up the program to include some of their undergraduate students. The minute they asked who wanted to attend, my hand shot right up.
To give you a little bit of background information on me, my name is Grace Leppert, a student pursuing a degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing and I am obsessed with studying abroad. I started college in 2020 meaning I started college online. Having felt like I was getting my college experience taken from me I found a solution: study abroad. I went on the ALBA Barcelona: Foster Partner Program Spring of 2022 and the IES Berlin: Foster Partner Program Winter of 2023. When I returned from my Winter program I became a Peer Study Abroad Advisor at UW Bothell, helping other students on their study abroad journey. Entering into my senior year of college, I assumed that I was done with studying abroad, that was until, the consulting class.
There ended up being seven undergraduates (all from the consulting class) going on the program along with 13 MBA students. The program was for Spring 2024 which ended up aligning perfectly with my schedule. In Winter quarter 2024 we took pre-departure classes as we were assigned a project along with our study abroad program, something very different from my previous two study abroad experiences. The project was to analyze the Indian market and take a business concept to bring back to the United States.
A couple days after Winter quarter ended we were off. We all had different flight plans, but we all had to meet in Bangalore on the same day as the next morning we had a 7:00 am start. It was the longest flight I’ve ever taken, 15 hours from Vancouver to Delhi and then another couple of hours to Bangalore. I landed at around 10pm and the first thing I noticed was the heat and the noise. While I was ready to pass out, the world around me was awake and bustling. It felt like rush hour traffic even though it was almost midnight by the time I got to the hotel.
Our time was filled in Bangalore, with guest presenters, company visits and cultural sites. I learned a lot in the short time there. From how their companies operate to how they adapt to their local audience. As a marketing major, I learned a lot more there about operations and technology than I ever did in a classroom. We got to visit the local university and learn about how they foster entrepreneurship-my personal favorite part. We also got to explore the traditional town of Mysore, to visit a palace, explore a local market and explore the drastic differences between Indian cities. While this trip was educational, it was also very impactful in a completely different way- through the connections I got to make and ones I got to develop further. Getting to work alongside Masters students was something I never thought I’d be able to do unless I was in a Master’s program myself. Getting to learn from them as well as have fun with them was a gift in itself. Getting to further know my fellow undergraduates, whom I’ve only spent a quarter with prior, as well as my professors, was one of the best parts of this program. You really get to know people when you travel with them and I’m lucky that I got to do it with this group of people.
Going on a study abroad program allows you to grow in more ways than one- educational, career and personal. The self growth you develop, even on a small program lasts a lifetime. This is a program i’ll never forget and I’m eternally grateful to my professors for making it happen.
If I could give any advice to students potentially thinking about studying abroad, it is worth it. Even if it’s challenging, it will be something you never forget. From my experience I have learned that opportunities exist even when you don’t think they’d apply to you. Search for them, take them and enjoy them.
Best of luck,
Grace 🙂
