Academic Credit
Earn academic credit for a life-changing experience.
Credit Earned
Students receive 9 credit hours for Winter Break and Summer programs:
- 3 for BA 2290 — Pre-trip preparation (taken the semester before travel)
- 6 for BA 4920 — International Business Experience (earned during travel)
Students receive 6 credit hours for Spring Break programs:
- 3 for BA 2290 — Pre-trip preparation (taken Fall semester)
- 3 for BA 4920 — International Business Experience (earned during Spring Break)
The GCP satisfies OHIO Cultural Perspectives and Experiential Learning requirements, as well as the College of Business internship requirement.
The GCP also counts as one course and a cultural immersion for the International Business Certificate and as one of the cultural immersion requirements for the International Business Major.
Program Course Description
The GCP experience is designed to give you an opportunity to leverage your existing business skills and develop new ones in an exciting and challenging international environment. GCP faculty assign students to cross-cultural teams consisting of American students and local students at our partner institution. These teams work on business projects developed by GCP faculty and host-country business clients. As each project is unique, the key challenge for each team is to develop and implement a strategy for completing their assigned project in a fashion that satisfies the client and meets the course objectives listed below, given time and resource constraints.
International consulting assignments present students with new challenges, such as language and cultural barriers and high levels of ambiguity and uncertainty. Accordingly, an important component of your experience is the pre-trip training, during which students prepare for these challenges with the help of GCP faculty.
The primary goal of the program is to provide you with a program that you will remember as one of the most meaningful and important experiences developing you personally and professionally.
Program Objectives
- To apply your business training and skills learned at OHIO to address an international business consulting problem. A key element in this objective is to apply principles from the scientific method to better address your assigned consulting project.
- To develop project management, team and interpersonal skills in a challenging environment
- To learn how to interact with clients and manage relationships with them
- To develop tolerance for ambiguity and adversity
- To gain new perspectives on conducting business in an international setting
- To develop an appreciation and respect for the country’s culture
- To learn and practice proper business etiquette in the context of a different culture
- To learn to create meaningful and high-quality deliverables
- To learn a lot, and have a great time doing it.
Grading
Grades for BA 2290 are based on language class performance, mini-projects and activities during pre-trip, and pre-week final reports and presentations.
Grades for BA 4920 are based on the final project report, final presentations, in-country progress reports, planning documents, and professionalism (see below).
Professionalism
Given the importance of attendance, professionalism, and attitude in both the workplace and the classroom, particularly guided by problem-based instruction, GCP faculty may make adjustments to grades for missed classes/meetings, lack of professionalism, or a negative, distracting attitude e.g. alcohol/drug abuse, disorderly conduct, lack of respect for your surroundings, etc.
Components of professionalism include respect, compassion, responsibility, timeliness, communication and accountability. Professionalism is the key to success as you represent yourself, your university and your country to those abroad. To enhance the learning experience, keep an open mind and positive attitude within the learning environment.