Tolerance, friendship, and building your future: Dr. Raj Basu shares his thoughts on study abroad with the CAGLE
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the CAGLE, we reminisce with Dr. Raj Basu on his study abroad experiences. Since 1994, Dr. Basu has taken over 450 students across Europe on short-term study abroad programs at the Spears School of Business. With 17 programs under his belt, he boasts some of the best numbers in the history of study abroad at the school. Dr. Basu shares some great stories with us and helps us understand why he is passionate about travel experiences and the impact it has on the culture at Spears.
“I feel like a citizen of the world,” states Dr. Basu. During the interview, he is sitting in his office at home while Dr. Jose Sagarnaga and I ask him questions in a video conference call. Typically, video conference calls are impersonal and lacking. Still, while listening to Dr. Basu share his experiences, it’s as if we are there with him, taking in the sights and scenes of his many expeditions. The sounds of laughter and jovial voices permeate through the screen as Dr. Basu describes a memorable moment in Bruges, Belgium. We begin to feel the spray of mist as he shares an anecdote of a journey across the water aboard a hovercraft. It’s clear why he is a highly-sought-after speaker. Each of his words is laced with passion and belief.
Truthfully, all Dr. Basu needs to do to gain our trust in this conversation is flash his credentials: an MBA from Duke University, a Ph.D. from Purdue, over 25 years of study abroad experience, and speaking and lecturing all over the world. Instead, he chooses to relay to us the unique perspective of one who has experienced firsthand the liberating and formative impact of study abroad in his own life and the lives of his students.
Dr. Basu has never been afraid of new experiences. He loves them, and it’s one of the reasons he chooses to lead study abroad programs each year, “I think I just love trying new things. And when I say try new things, I mean everything. I like new cities, new food, new people. But I especially like to try new food. New food and culture are what draw me to travel.” This love for new is why he attended a study abroad program in his college career, which had a dramatic impact on the trajectory of his life, “It changed the course of my life. Because I studied abroad, I have been living abroad ever since…I have the confidence to live somewhere else in the world that I might not have had if I hadn’t studied abroad…I think I can live anywhere now.”
Diversity, Culture, and Tolerance
Traveling abroad and experiencing different cultures has made Dr. Basu a better professor as well, “I am actually more tolerant as a professor to diverse viewpoints in my classroom. When somebody has a viewpoint very different from either mine or somebody else’s and let’s say two people start arguing, I’m able to see both viewpoints, and I am able to tell both people ‘here is what I want you to look for in each other’s viewpoint’”.
The Spears Business culture is a point of pride for Dr. Basu, due in large part to its development of tolerance through an expanded worldview in the personnel through study abroad programs. “I think we are doing an amazing job not only in terms of opening the minds and eyes of students, making sure they’re no longer close-minded, but also the number of faculty involved, and that makes them better in the classroom…The staff interacts with students a lot [as well]. Our advisors interact with our students a lot, and then they guide our students into courses and experiences, so I think sending our staff is just as important as the students and the faculty.”
Studying Abroad Helps Students Stand Out
Considering the impact studying abroad had on Dr. Basu’s life, we don’t need to be convinced when he says it is a great benefit to a student’s professional career, “If a student studies abroad they have now distinguished themselves from other students. There is something on that resume most other students do not have. There is a conversation piece with a Human Resources manager that a student can draw upon that other students cannot draw upon…once you do that study abroad, you become more attractive to a company.” This is evident in 2019 data published from the Institute of International Education in collaboration with Open Doors claiming that only 10% of the U.S. undergraduate population studies abroad during their college career. The importance of international experience is affirmed by a report prepared by Shirley Daniel in 2014 for the Internationalization of U.S. Education in the 21st Century conference. It found that nearly 40% of companies surveyed missed out on international business opportunities due to a lack of globally-minded personnel. With ever-increasing trends of globalization, Daniel claims that “all business graduates need to have an appreciation for cross-cultural differences and a global perspective.” Dr. Basu echoes this sentiment, “…I would say that is the most important thing I find in students who have been overseas. Even after a week or two weeks abroad, they come back with a much higher level of confidence in themselves but a much more tolerant view of the world.”
Dr. Basu on Building Confidence
The professional impact of studying abroad becomes clear to us when Dr. Basu shares the story of a former student of his, Joe Eastin, who attended Dr. Basu’s very first study abroad program to London in 1994, “Joe Eastin had never been anywhere. He is from Adair, OK. The Eastin Center for Career Readiness is named after him. Joe Eastin and Justin Stead both came along on my very first study abroad trip. I remember Joe Eastin walking all over London with his cowboy boots on, tipping his hat to people and saying ‘Howdy Ma'am.' Within a week after we got back, he was a changed person. Now he runs a 600-person company that does work all over the world, and he flies to give talks all over. I mean, that’s the advantage of the experience of traveling abroad.” Joe Eastin is the CEO of ISN, and the Eastin Center for Career Readiness in the Spears School of Business bears his name.
Creating Global Friendships
It isn’t just the professional implications that Dr. Basu sheds light on, but the personal relationships that are available to those who study abroad as well. Last year, Dr. Basu led a study abroad program to Barcelona, Spain. There were four Chinese students and forty-five American students in the summer program. During this program, a Chinese student was hospitalized for two days due to an accidental injury. While they were in the hospital, all of the students took turns waiting on the injured student. Dr. Basu shares the impact this had on the students, “When the Chinese students left Barcelona, they said in the three years they had been in Oklahoma, they didn’t have a single American friend. They just hung out with other Asians and Chinese students. Yet after being in Barcelona for a week, they had 45 American friends that were regularly meeting with them. But not only that, the other 45 American kids who went did not have a single Chinese friend until they went on this trip. The two largest economies in the world and neither of them had a friend in the other economy until they went on this trip.”
Learning Beyond the Classroom Environment
Dr. Basu has seen relationships bridged across cultural gaps over and over again, going back to his first program in 1994, when he and his students participated in a six-hour conversation on politics and foreign policy with some locals at a restaurant in Bruges. “When we left, one of the students told me that they had never had a six-hour conversation with people that they didn’t know, that they didn’t agree with, and it not turn into an argument at some point [until that night].” It’s clear by this point that studying abroad offers unique advantages over an in-classroom experience, which Dr. Sagarnaga observes, “The microenvironment that we create in these short-term programs allow for these interactions to happen. They could happen in the classroom or on campus, but they are not [regularly] happening, which is why this is a benefit of studying abroad.”
As our conversation comes to an end, Dr. Basu has this encouragement for students considering studying abroad, “Just go do it. Pick the place you want to go and go…I believe every student should absolutely study abroad. It makes you a better person, it makes you worldlier, it opens your horizons, and it makes your resume look better.” He also leaves a remark for faculty, “If you have the inclination, absolutely lead a study abroad program. Find out a place around the world where you have always been interested in going that you feel passionate about.”
We appreciate Dr. Basu taking the time to share his experiences with us. Through the efforts of the CAGLE and the Spears School of Business, we hope to continue strengthening the diverse culture and global mindset of our students, faculty, and staff. Through our collective efforts, we can all be, like Dr. Basu, citizens of the world.
Sources:
https://p.widencdn.net/5i0s78/OD19_graphics_handout-2019
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/419a/9590be548660c0600a12a7adc7388c5c18b8.pdf?_ga=2.89917342.480553097.1592927597-1943379264.1592248848