BOZEMAN — Full of new insights into business communication, Montana State University students recently returned from a summer class abroad in Ireland, where they learned and laughed in scenic settings from Galway to Dublin to the Cliffs of Moher.
This summer marked the first time that BMGT 205: Professional Business Communication, a required course for MSU business majors, was taught abroad. Anne Watson and Marina Calabrese, lecturers in the Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship, led the trip in collaboration with the MSU Office of International Programs.
Ireland was an attractive place to hold the class because of its well-regarded position in the global business community, Calabrese said. In addition to being the home of many influential international businesses, there is also no language barrier, and the country’s rich history encouraged students to seek out intercultural connection with Irish locals.
“Jabs and MSU strive to educate a global citizen, with students recognizing the value of intercultural exchange to their personal and professional development,” said Brian Gillespie, dean of the business college. “Studying abroad provides a unique opportunity for students to learn from different cultures, and I am proud of our professors for delivering real-world applications of international business communication in Ireland.”
Nine students traveled to Ireland, all of whom were studying business, finance or marketing, though some were also double majors in other subjects.
Fellow business professor Anne Gibson helped Calabrese and Watson condense the class material into four weeks. Normally held over a semester, the class covers business writing, oral presentations and persuasion skills.
The first half of the course was held online, and the second half in Ireland from June 9 to June 21. With the historic University of Galway as a home base, the course offered a balance of classroom work, cultural immersion and visits to several sites, where students could apply the lessons they learned in school to real life.
“The opportunity to immediately connect classroom learning to real life made it more engaging for students,” Calabrese said. “We knew we couldn’t hold them in the classroom all the time. It had to be a toggle between theory and application.”
In a visit to Ireland’s Foreign Direct Investment Agency, or IDA, students could ask questions directly of IDA officials Grainne Sexton and Ricky Conneely, who work with foreign companies. In a complementary lesson, the class split into two groups – one representing Germany and the other Japan – and delivered mock business proposals, attempting to persuade the IDA to work with their company over the other. They received feedback on their communication and persuasive skills and at the same time learned how different countries have unique approaches to business and securing foreign investment.
The class also toured a Thermo King manufacturing facility in Galway, a heating and cooling company that is a subsidiary of the American-Irish corporation Trane Technologies. The facility manufactures refrigeration for trucks and is a prime example of an international collaborative business model, Calabrese said. Later, the group toured the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, where students engaged in an assignment connected to the displays, identifying novel marketing and branding techniques. Guinness is a prime example of a brand that reflects Irish history but has global appeal, with international collaborations and popularity transcending generations, Watson said.
Overall, visits to companies like Thermo King and the Guinness Storehouse allowed students to connect classroom theories with real-world examples of global branding, marketing and international collaboration, the professors said.
Another memorable experience was a weekend excursion to the Aran Islands and the seaside village of Doolin on Ireland’s western coast, accessed via ferry. There, the group toured Gabriel Flaherty’s goat farm, which produces goat cheese and caters tours for tourists, showcasing a successful entrepreneur who created value from the resources available to him.
Piper Davis, a junior marketing major and international business minor, said the Irish locals she interacted with were the kindest and most welcoming people she’s ever met.
“I am so grateful to our professors, Marina and Anne – they were the perfect team to make this trip such a success,” Davis said. “We met with insanely impressive companies and through our interactions I learned so much about international business.”
Ruby Waller, a junior business management student, added that “study abroad courses give students the opportunity to engage deeply with the world and apply their learnings in real-world situations.”
Nessa Cronin, head of Irish Studies at the University of Galway, visited the class as a guest speaker. Engaging with the history of Ireland was an added bonus of the class, Watson said, while Calabrese added it was interesting to step outside of the U.S. and hear different perspectives on global affairs, which is in line with MSU’s mission to educate a “global citizen.”
“Everybody you encounter there likes to talk about their history, and they do so with humor and in a very engaging way. And so, I think the students were really able to connect with the cultural aspects of Ireland for that reason,” Watson said.
Overall, both professors said the trip exceeded expectations, and they were surprised by how fast the group members bonded with each other. It was a different experience to travel and be with students for an extended length of time and learn more about their families and personal lives in a way that doesn’t happen in a typical campus setting, they both said.
Calabrese and Watson emphasized how co-teaching in a smaller, immersive environment fostered closer connections with students and allowed for a flexible, hands-on approach to learning. The trip was such a success that the professors will recommend offering the course in Ireland again next summer.
“Our visit just lined up so beautifully with the things we were teaching in class,” Watson said.
Study abroad is a popular choice at MSU, with 244 students participating in individual experiences and 230 in faculty- or staff-led experiences in the 2024-25 academic year. Programs traveled to 21 countries on all continents except Antartica
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