BLOOMINGTON, IN – For nearly a decade, since the time of the economic crisis, every spring, 24 students and graduates of Indiana University, Bloomington, are divided into groups and study the political, cultural, legal, and economic context of Greece, learning about the culture of the country, observing the habits of the Greeks and live their daily lives for ten days, but mainly they offer solutions and professional advice to Greek entrepreneurs who want to expand into the foreign market, ANA reports.
Their first contact with the history, political, economic, legal aspects of Greece takes place in their classroom in January, and a few months later, in May, they visit Athens and other cities and islands. Student and postgraduate research is part of the Business Culture Greece program, the inspiration and “soul” of which is a dedicated Greek, a dynamic woman and notable academic.
Tatiana Kolovou is a senior lecturer at Indiana University with a Business Communication specialty at the Kelley School of Business (considered the 10th best in the U.S.) and explains the rationale and spirit of this program to the Athens News Agency (ANA-MPA).
“Everything started when I went to Indiana in the United States in 1984, 35 years ago, to study and finally to live permanently, I had a family, and now I teach there. Mostly I have specialization in cross-cultural communication,” noted Kolovou.
“The idea for this program came about at a Christmas party in 2009 when the rector asked me about Greece’s financial situation and then I told him that it is not just a Greek matter but also for all of Europe and therefore students should learn what is really happening. So, in 2011, I came to Greece with 20 students and one assistant and they all returned with excitement. Since then, I go once or twice a year, sometimes with 24 undergrad students and sometimes with 24 postgraduate students, separately.”
To this day, Kolovou has brought more than 300 students to visit Greece. “Let’s say it’s an academic trip with business meetings and it’s not purely tourism. There are initially around eight to nine business meetings that we do, while going to museums and walking around the city so that students get in touch with Greek reality. For example, this year we will go to Aegina to visit the pistachio cooperative where the children will go to the fields and learn about the production and export of the main product of the island. All this research that students do is their job. In the end, we will look at a subject on the political, economic, legal, history of Greece as well as on issues related to the European Union,” Kolovou told ANA-MPA and stressed that the main objective of the whole project is to learn how active and entrepreneurial it is in Greece.
Read more at thenationalherald.com
RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
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