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Germany serves as classroom for business, engineering students during Maymester

Abigael Adediran | 

Germany_2As part of Lipscomb University’s Global Apprentice Program, 36 students in the College of Business and the Raymond B. Jones College of Engineering spent the Maymester studying in Esslingen, Germany.

The Maymester program which was open for all business and engineering majors started on May 7 and ended on June 2.

Andy Borchers, associate dean of undergraduate studies in the College of Business, and Chris Gwaltney, chair of the civil and environmental engineering department, served as faculty during the trip.

Lipscomb University’s Global Learning Program assures students of academic, emotional and spiritual growths.

“Study abroad is vital for business students to understand globalization. Most firms have global aspects to their operations, and students need to understand international business,” Borchers said.

“Engineers can no longer live in a ‘US bubble,’ like many other disciplines we must take a worldly view with our projects,” said Gwaltney.

The study program included lectures by German faculty from the Esslingen University of Applied Sciences and class work integrated with company visits including Mercedes, BASF, SAP, Porsche, Karcher, Ritter Sport and Karcher.

Borchers talked about how the central location of Germany allowed visits to Brussels, Paris, Munich, Budapest and other European cities during the course.

Germany_1The Stuttgart area near Esslingen is also home to major German companies such as Mercedes, Porsche, Ritter Sport and Karcher among others.

“While in Germany we visited several industrial manufacturing sites and recognized how the Germans approach quality engineering as well as their focus on sustainability,” said Gwaltney. “We also visited the ‘Stuttgart 21’ project that is a €12.5 billion ($15B) infrastructure project for a rail line between Stuttgart and Ulm. We experienced the value of investing in infrastructure and public transit on a daily basis with our travels. You can’t get that in reading a book!”

Business students earned six hours of academic credits in International Business and Operations and Supply Chain Management while students from the College of Engineering acquired six academic credit hours in Engineering Ethics and Engineering Economy and Planning.

For more information about the College of Business, visit business.lipscomb.edu. Learn more about the Raymond B. Jones College of Engineering at engineering.lipscomb.edu.To learn more about Lipscomb’s Global Learning Programs, visit www.lipscomb.edu/globallearning.