Office of International Education and Development

Opportunities for international travel and study are rife at Appalachian State University. At at any given time students and faculty may be found in Brazil, Africa, Western Europe, Cuba or Asia.

In spring 2015 Chancellor Sheri N. Everts accompanied a Walker College of Business group on a three-week faculty/student delegation to China. Simultaneously, Dr. Heather Dixon-Fowler, who leads study-abroad programs for the college, took a group of students for a business- and social entrepreneurship-focused trip through Cambodia and Vietnam. Four alumni working in Vietnam – three of them past travelers with Dixon-Fowler – met and mentored the students. "It was great for the students to meet alumni who were in their shoes just a few years before and are now finding success and adventure in international careers," Dixon-Fowler said.

During a portion of the Holland students' trip, a 10-day program at Fudan, the students were exposed to the challenges of doing business in China and participated in lectures given by professors in Fudan's School of Management. They visited the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. They were exposed to the practices of international business during visits to state-owned enterprises and foreign joint ventures in China, and by meeting Hong Kong businesspersons.

While in Vietnam the other group traveled to Hoi An, a UNESCO World Heritage Site representing a fusion of cultures in an international commercial port. They toured an Adidas manufacturing plant where one of the alumni works in Ho Choi Mihn City (Saigon), the economic center of Vietnam. In Cambodia they visited Angkor Wat, Phnom Penh, and the rice fields of the Svay Rieng province, where they helped install a well as part of a Wine to Water Project (http://winetowater.org).

Photojournalist and university photographer Marie Freeman '85 was embedded with the students for portions of both trips.