Students interested in doing a May Term study abroad program this spring will have the opportunity to go to Thailand and Cambodia, known as “the land of smiles”.
The course instructors will be Kelly Swinton, Assistant Professor of Accounting, and John Walker, Associate Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship.
This will be the third iteration of this trip. The first two times, it was to Thailand and Vietnam.
“The purpose of this course is to study business and social entrepreneurship with business visits to the U.S. Embassy and a law firm in Bangkok,” Swinton said. “The social entrepreneurship piece is interacting with local organizations that have a business, and the profit is then put back towards a social purpose.”
The class will be accompanied by a tour guide to help with the language barrier that comes with traveling to a foreign country.
“Thai is a Sanskrit language, so it is completely different from an English or Spanish standpoint. We will use a tour company that has guides who escort us around and help make it a really fulfilling trip from that standpoint,” Walker said.
The trip will run from April 28 through May 16, making this May Term one of the longer travel courses. This allows for more opportunities to be available on the trip.
“Thailand is beautiful. The culture is beautiful. I have friends that I stay in contact with who are monks, so we are going to go visit them,” Swinton said. “We got a chance to get to know our tour guide very well, so we will go visit his hometown village where we can work with children at the elementary school and his community.”
Thailand is also home to some wonderful foods that are quite different from what we are accustomed to eating in America.
“The food in Thailand is a culinary delight and an amazing overall experience. So, if there are any foodies out there who are interested in experiencing food from the other side of the world, this is the trip to go on,” Walker said.
Students who elect to take this course will hopefully be able to have unique experiences along with a better understanding of how different life is across the world.
“Some of the activities we do, such as spending time with elephants, chatting with monks and spending time in Buddhist temples, are key takeaways for students,” Walker said.
The differences between the United States to Thailand can also be seen in the social hierarchy of the country.“There are indigenous people called hill tribe people along with several refugees from Myanmar that live along the border. So, I think that it’s eye-opening to see the differences in how people live,” Swinton said.
To learn more about the May Term trip to Thailand and Cambodia, reach out to Swinton or Walker.
