Geneva College students have the opportunity to gain invaluable knowledge and exceptional life experience through the China Experience class and international trip. With a culture rich in history and the arts and the world’s fastest growing economy, China provides visitors extraordinary cultural and business learning opportunities.
Participating students attend class during the spring semester to learn about business and culture in Asia with an emphasis on China. The class qualifies as either BUS 316 or HUM 304 and meets once a week. Students learn about Asian business practices; Chinese history and language; and Chinese culture including the arts, religion and political history.
Following the end of the spring semester, students take a two-week trip to China. The previous journey in 2011 began with four days in China’s capital, Beijing, where students visited the Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City and a leading Beijing business among many other sites. Students then spent three days in Shanghai, China’s city of industrial technology. The tour of Shanghai started at the Bund, which was once considered the “Wall Street of the East,” and included visits to the Jade Buddha Temple and the Yu Garden. Students also spent time discussing modern Chinese culture with professors and students at a university and visit a Shanghai business. The experience concluded with three days in Hong Kong, China’s “Window to the World,” with a tour to Victoria Peak; a visit to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Asia’s second largest stock exchange; and a day exploring the shops and cuisines of the city.
The integration of classroom learning with real-world experience is what makes this opportunity so unique. Associate Professor of Business, Dr. Denise Murphy-Gerber says “Everything that we talk about in class, students will see, feel and experience on the trip. For example, we learn about the importance of tea culture and then go to a tea house in China and taste the tea. In class, we learn about regional cuisine and chopsticks and then use them for a dim sum lunch and Peking duck dinner.” She points out that the cultural experience is significant “because Chinese culture is thousands of years old and there are so many cultural nuances still present to see and feel, and that are still alive in the people themselves.”
Students receive one credit for the China Experience class and three credits for the trip to China. Students may participate in the class without traveling for one credit, but completion of the class is a prerequisite for attending the trip.
To view photos from a previous China Experience trip, click here.
To see the itinerary from the 2011 China Experience, click here.
China Experience will be offered next in the spring semester of 2015.
The cardiovascular science program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP).
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