Annie Lemke

For the past two years, Kevin Upton has taken a group of his students for a two-week study abroad experience in Paris and Bordeaux, where they contrast marketing practices in France with those in the United States. The trip is culturally immersive from the moment students step off the plane. Before the trip, Upton explains to the students the transportation modes available to get from the airport to their hotel. It’s then up to them to navigate their way to the hotel, where Upton is waiting to confirm their arrival. “It’s fun to sit in the lobby and watch them walk in the door with a look of accomplishment on their faces,” he says. Upton’s class meets the requirements of the marketing core class that every Carlson School undergraduate is required to take. Students meet for eight weeks at the Carlson School, where they learn key marketing concepts and the class culminates in France, where students work on several projects geared towards applying and testing their understanding of key marketing concepts. For many of the students, this trip is their first time experiencing another country. This was true for Annie Lemke, who’s entering her senior year as a marketing and entrepreneurial studies major. “This was a great trip, and I felt very prepared for an experience in a foreign country,” she says. When in France, students attend morning classes. They’re given unscheduled time in the afternoon, but they’re assigned a list of sites to visit. Besides visiting museums and historic sites, Upton also assigns the students to visit supermarkets, department stores, and corner cafés. Each site helps illustrate fundamental marketing concepts while making use of the unique resources of France. For example, while in the U.S. students are asked to study a local museum. That museum’s marketing practices are then compared with the practices at the Louvre. Upton’s students keep journals that document their observations of differences between the businesses in France and in the U.S. While the students recognize what is different between the two countries, more frequently they’re struck by what’s the same. “After awhile, they begin to see the similarities rather than the differences,” says Upton. “There are differences in tradition and culture, but then we begin to ask what are the cultural differences and what are simply recent traditions.” The trip deeply influenced Lemke’s future. She’s already booked a semester-long study abroad program in Australia. And she feels that traveling in France equipped her to contribute more in the workforce. “Having traveled across borders, I’ll have a different viewpoint that I can bring to the table,” she says. “This trip gave me much more than I could have ever learned simply by reading a book.”