Seeking Vitality

View of Sankt Gallen on my way to Uni!

I guess it's about time I address the "study" part of studying abroad.  Though it hasn't been present in the stories I've shared thus far on my blog, class started a little over three weeks ago and I promise that I truly have been studying abroad.  I may be a business student but I'm a government geek at heart so it has made me exceedingly ecstatic to have the opportunity to take both business and international affairs classes while here at HSG (University of St. Gallen).  My favorite course in which I am enrolled this semester is - without a doubt - my "International Development" class as it will be the most hands on course I have ever taken where I actually get to put learned theory into practice.  The majority of the course takes place in an intensive during the first four days of our Spring Break.  I never thought I would be so psyched to forgo a few days off for more class.  My peers and I are divided into four groups who are each assigned a case regarding integral international development.  After familiarizing ourselves with our respective cases, we have the amazing opportunity to jumpstart our work on them while at the UN and WTO! I'm really really excited if you haven't noticed yet.  I'm team leader for my group which will be studying Sekem, a company based in Egypt focused on sustainable development.  Our task is to translate Sekem's approach to development into a holistic management style that will strongly resonate with their employees.  I've only just begun reviewing the case materials and I'm already fascinated.  Sekem itself is a transliteration of an ancient egyptian hieroglyph meaning "vitality" - that driving life force.  It's the thought of vitality that drew me towards this course in the first place.  I am seeking that passion - the work that makes me want to get out of bed in the morning (a tough task as I am not a morning person and caffeine is the strongest motivator I've found yet).  I want to find a career that embodies everything I love - foreign languages, a constant momentum to improve the world and the lives of its citizens, cross-cultural partnerships, global politics, and, most importantly, amazingly inspirational people.

Taking such specific and fascinating classes this semester is one step in the search for that vitality I hope to one day embrace.  My next favorite class is a masters level course called "Concept of Power".  It's an ongoing discussion about what power really is, where we find it, how to find it, and what it means to wield it.  It means my binge watching of House of Cards Season 3 has actually taken on a critical analysis component as I evaluate Underwood and Petrov's respective power dynamics.  Do you think my professor would let me write my term paper proving that Frank had more power in Congress than he does as President? I swear it would be a thought provoking and serious application of historical definitions of power.  House of Cards - and Petrov's crazy games - reminds me of another one of my classes: "International Politics of Eurasia".  It's a class where I study Putin's crazy games (could the writers of HoC have made the allusion any subtler?) as well as the security and identity issues of the rest of the former Soviet space.  The class has renewed my interest in the region and resparked the enthusiasm I held when I first started taking Russian in high school.  I can't wait to return to my studies of the language when I return to the University of South Carolina in the Fall.  The other regional course I'm taking is "Society and Culture of South Asia".  Though I may be studying in Europe this semester, I'm still trying to learn as much as I can about the rest of the world as well.

Four classes down, which means there are four more to go.  The rest are a little bit drier and more business oriented (if you can't tell I plan on applying my IB degree to professional areas that aren't just strictly business).  These business classes consist of the following: Experimental Methods of Behavioural Research, Economic Development, Strategic Management, and Politics of Corporations and Corporations as Political Actors.  Actually the latter class has only met once so far and I think it could turn out to be quite interesting (combining business and government - yay!). The group of which I'm a member for our semester project has chosen to study corporate social responsibility and multilevel shareholder activism and it's all very reminiscent of IBUS 310 with Professor Ostergaard at USC. I've always been interested in examining how businesses can play a role in development - domestically and internationally.  If that sounds interesting to you, I highly recommend reading an article called "The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid" as it gives a very different take on poverty - just some food for thought. And I'll leave you with that . . . I'll definitely add more about classes as the semester progresses but for now it's back to traveling (and I guess studying too).