Students Study Abroad via COBA's $200-K Grant

COBA Awarded $200-K Grant to Promote International Business Education 

By Kenneth Mullinax/ASU 

A $200,000 U.S. Department of Education Business and International Education grant has been awarded to Alabama State University's Dr. Percy J. Vaughn College of Business Administration (COBA). The two-year grant will allow COBA students and faculty to be exposed to in-depth business practices and models during study tours in the European Union (EU).  

Alabama State University was one of only 20 schools selected from across the nation for this grant, explained Dr. Kamal Hingorani, COBA's dean. 

"We are very appreciative of having the Department of Education in Washington to recognize the expertise of ASU's business school and the scholarly prowess of our students by selecting the University for this important honor," Hingorani said. "This project will introduce experiential learning components through a 10-day overseas study tour of European Union (EU) nations, specifically in France and Belgium, both this year and again next year." 

The eight students who will be studying abroad from May 9 - May 19 are Edward Bernard Brown, Jr., Tre'von Conner, Ziyhon Cordell Hubert, Dylan Hill Stallworth, Raegan Elicia Ballinger, Amber Jearne Frazier, Haley Nicole Heard and Bernadette Payne. Three COBA faculty members will accompany the students and be involved in actively educating them on various environmental aspects that impact the study project. Those faculty members are Dean Kamal Hingorani, Dr. Sara Kiser and Instructor Kim Smith. 

EXPERIENTIAL "IN-PERSON" LEARNING 

The COBA dean stated that the study tour will focus on experiential learning by allowing the students to observe the progress made by the EU in improving environmental standards, specifically carbon emission, which contributes to the greenhouse effect on the Earth's environment. 

"It is good and necessary that our students are exposed to the culture, history, and business practices in different parts of the world firsthand through experiential learning (seeing it in-person) that can be traced back to the famous dictum of Confucius around 450 BC, which states ‘Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand,’" said Hingorani. 

The Dean explained that experiential learning has long been used as a tool in business education to provide students with hands-on learning exercises that complements their in-class education.  

"To achieve our objective of focused, in-person learning, we have implemented this competitive study tour to the EU." stated Hingorani. "This grant will allow us to repeat a similar study abroad event again next summer as well, so that we may expose even more Alabama State students to studying in-person about what we have taught them first in the classroom. This is also exposing our diverse cadre of students to traveling abroad, a worldly view, which many have only previously dreamed of seeing. This will create an important and positive ASU educational moment and a good memory they may share with fellow students and family." 

News media contact: Kenneth Mullinax, 334-229-4104. 

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