First BCL Alumni Dinner!
Business Culture and Languages
On Tuesday, May 6, the BCL Program and Organization hosted its first Alumni Dinner. Over 60 current students, alumni, and faculty from the SLLC and the Business School had a fun evening in the Language House. There was delicious food from several continents and international entertainment. The 10 alumni that joined us were introduced and offered insights and ideas to our current students. We thank the students on the BCLO board for making this event possible!
Tamara Hayes (BCLO President) and Aditya Narain (President of the Global Business Society - BCLO's counterpart in the Business School)
BCL Alumni Sun Oh and Emily Gaertner
Dr. Nicole Minnick with one of her students in the BCL Program, Kate Francies
Dr. Curtis Grimm and Dr. Brian Shaffer from the Business School with BCL Board Member Cristina Stefanita
BCL Colloquium in its Fourth Year!
The BCL Program organized a number of panels and presentations in its BCL Colloquium Series: Language and Communication for Global Business during 2002-2003. Some of the topics covered were Cross-Cultural Design and Marketing, Global Entrepreneurship, and An International Career: Guaranteed! The career panel was especially popular and attracted almost 90 students. The BCL Colloquium also hosted a series of "Doing Business in" panels (Latin America, Europe, and Asia) featuring a number of prominent speakers from the corporate, government, and non-profit communities. We were also able to bring back a few alumni to speak to current BCL students about career opportunities.
Students Take Charge: New BCL Student Organization
A group of students in the BCL Program initiated an effort in fall 2002 to create a student organization. The Business, Culture and Languages Organization (BCLO) was approved by the SGA in December 2002 and currently has 27 registered members. The BCLO President, Tamara Hayes, who has been instrumental in forming this new student organization, is a graduating senior in marketing with a double citation in Business Italian and Business Spanish. BCLO has a number of committees that focus on areas such as Corporate and Embassy Relations, Internship Development, Recruitment and Student Mentoring, Academic Relations, and Promotion and Special Events. The BCLO board consists of a group of high-energy, enthusiastic individuals who are all dedicated students of languages and cultures.
BCL Applies for NEH Humanities Focus Grant
The BCL faculty gathered around an innovative project that connects literary and film studies with the learning of applied culture. The project entitled: Gender and Power in Global Business: A Humanities Perspective was submitted to the NEH under their Humanities Focus Grant in April 2003. If funded, a group of faculty in French, Japanese, and Spanish will develop course modules that use literature and film to teach students about issues of gender and power in global business. The modules will likely be integrated into a new Diversity CORE course.
BCL News Items:
On Maryland Day the BCL Program organized business language workshops for high school students. Twenty-five students and their parents and teachers joined us for workshops in Business French and Spanish. BCL also hosted a Cross-Cultural Workshop that was open to the public. The presentation featured a film on cultural differences in the perception of quality, a cultural auction (teams representing various countries bid on items with underlying cultural values such as "poetic language" and "a family gathering to watch the world soccer championships") with our own auctioneer, Dr. Roberta Lavine, and an overview of the BCL Program. Those in attendance had great fun!
In June BCL will co-sponsor a Workshop for High School Teachers: Teaching Business French and Cross-Cultural Issues that was initiated and developed by Dr. Nicole Minnick, our Business French Professor.
BCL will offer three courses on International Business Cultures in fall 2003. You can find complete course descriptions on the BCL website at www.languages.umd.edu/bcl under Study Options, then Courses.
