First-year Students Visit 16 Countries

As part of the Yale integrated MBA curriculum, each first-year student travels to one of several destinations around the world to study the local business, political, and cultural environment. The destinations are the focus of pre-trip sessions in the winter term and lectures and cases in the State and Society course in the spring.

In each country, students meet with the leaders of banks, oil companies, stock exchanges, and multinationals, nonprofits, and governments, but also followed entrepreneurs turning what outsiders would call hardships, into opportunities. In 2010, students travelled to Australia, Bangladesh/Malaysia, Brazil, China/Hong Kong, Costa Rica, Japan, Russia/Norway, South Africa/Nambia, and Western Europe. The trips were built around particular themes: healthcare in Australia; finance in China; development in Bangladesh and Malaysia; eco-tourism in Costa Rica; the role of government in the economies of Russia and Norway; and operations in Japan. "Collectively we really got a great educational experience," said Laura Rodriguez ’11. "It was an experience of a lifetime."