 "Photo: Photo Courtesy of Alicia Brown")
Pick up this October's issue of Bloomberg BusinessWeek and you might be in for a surprise.
There will be a story about a trip to India taken by several N.C. Central University students and two faculty members, Cindy Love, director of student professional development, and Malavika Sundararajan, assistant professor of business.
The ten-day spring break trip was designed as an opportunity for seven students, one graduate and six undergraduates, to learn about leadership, business administration and outsourcing.
It was funded in large part by a Business International Education grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
According to Sundararajan students were prepared for the trip with a clear orientation to sensitize them to the more surprising things they would see in India, like the traffic and the bugs.
"They knew what they were getting into," she said, adding that they stressed one message in the orientation: "No whining."
The students took business classes at the School of Communication and Management Studies in Cochin, Kerela.
They also met with representatives from four globally-recognized large companies: Wipro, Sutherland, Allianz, and Muthoot Fincorp.
These companies specialize in everything from finance, to consulting, to technology and to outsourcing.
Outsourcing, a special focus of the trip, is the global trend to seek lower service and production labor costs in countries like India and China where labor is cheaper.
According to Love, the primary purpose of the trip was to introduce students to the process of global outsourcing and to the complex issues surrounding the role of outsourcing in the global economy.
Graduate student Rasheed Brown described the Indians they studied with as "very caring and hospitable."
"Every morning they tried to fix our breakfast American-style," said Brown.
"It wasn't exactly American-style and some mornings the eggs were served with jalapenos and cereal with hot milk."
"Of course it wasn't the same, but it was nice of them to do so," he said.
Love said that the students did an excellent job "wrapping their minds around the experience of traveling in India."
She said they thoroughly enjoyed experiencing the new foods and the cultural experience.
Brown said that one of the most fun experiences in India was playing that popular American game — basketball.
"The people were cheering for us on the sides when we walked on the court," he said.
"That was one of the most fun experiences! It was like ‘You come over here, we're going to accommodate you.'"
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