STUDENTS STUDY FOREIGN BUSINESSES WITH LOCAL TIES

Sixty Southeast Missouri State University full-time and visiting students will get a flavor for international business when they tour several overseas companies -- two with local ties -- during a three-week European Study Program which began last week. Students from Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Scott City, Sikeston, Perryville and other parts of Southeast Missouri, and the St. Louis metropolitan area are participating.

The program -- now in its seventh year and a collaborative effort of Southeast Missouri State University, Southern Illinois University, Western Illinois University, Central Missouri State University and Southwest Missouri State University -- will take students to COLAS, S.A. in Paris, France, which is the parent company of Delta Asphalt Inc., Girardeau Contractors, Inc., Delta Concrete, Inc., and Southeast Missouri Stone Co. of Cape Girardeau. The group also will visit Procter & Gamble in Euskirchen, Germany, the sister plant to the Procter & Gamble Paper Products Co. north of Cape Girardeau. In addition, the students will tour IBM Europe in Paris; Mobile Oil Europe in London, England; Caterpillar Inc. in Charleroi, Belgium; Skoda Motor Works and Pilsen Brewery, both in Pilsen in the Czech Republic; a Heineken production facility in Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Siemens World Headquarters in Munich, Germany; BASF chemical company in Heidelberg, Germany; and a Wrigley Gum facility in Strasbourg, France.

The students are divided into two groups, which are departing from St. Louis a week apart in mid-May. The program is coordinated by Dr. Ken Heischmidt and Dr. Peter Gordon, both Southeast professors of marketing.

"We hope this expands students' world perspective on life," Heischmidt said. "This helps students realize there are other people in the world who handle their business and living environment in ways both similar and different to the way we do."

Students begin the European tour in London, where they will have the opportunity to meet with The Honorable Matthew Banks, a member of Parliament and a colleague of Eighth District U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson of Cape Girardeau. They will tour Westminster Hall as special invited guests of Banks. This facility is not open to the public unless by special arrangements made directly by a member of Parliament.

"I'm hoping students will gain a better understanding of the political process and the culture of democracy because of this experience," Heischmidt said.

In London, the students also will tour Westminster Abbey (where English kings and queens since William the Conqueror in 1066 have been crowned), the House of Commons, the House of Lords, British Museum, St. Paul's Cathedral, Harrod's, Tratalger Square and the Tower of London. They also will witness the changing of the guards outside Buckingham Palace, home of the queen, and walk by #10 Downing Street, home of the prime minister. Also while in London, the students will tour the quality control production and marketing areas of Mobile Oil Europe, where they will eat lunch.

Leaving London for Paris, students will tour Canterbury Cathedral (home to Archbishop Thomas Becket in 1170) in southern England. Students will see the White Cliffs of Dover as they leave England. In Paris, they will visit the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, Basilique Du Sacre-Couer, the Arch de Triumph and Versailles Palace. The business focus in Paris will center on product development and marketing, international business and EC business environment presentations at both COLAS, S.A. and IBM Europe.

Last year, Donald L. Harrison, president of the Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents and the former principal owner of the Delta Companies and Southern Illinois Companies, sold his two companies to COLAS U.S. INC., a subsidiary of COLAS S.A. of Paris. Locally, the companies operate Delta Asphalt, Inc., Girardeau Contractors, Inc., Delta Concrete, Inc., and Southeast Missouri Stone Co. Harrison remains as chairman of the board and chief executive officer and is closely involved in business decisions and day-to-day operations, and continues to attend meetings of the parent company board. COLAS S.A. of Paris will provide a lunch cruise on the River Seine for the students during their stay in Paris. Also while in France, the students plan to visit a Wrigley Gum facility in Strasbourg, Heischmidt said.

The two student groups will meet in Brussels where they will tour the Grand Place, an open market area where a laser light and classical music show will be performed at nightfall on the City Hall building. South of Brussels in Charleroi, Belgium, the students will meet several vice presidents of Caterpillar Inc. who will make presentations on various aspects of Caterpillar's business. The students also will tour Caterpillar's production facility and will partake in a steak dinner at the plant. Upon returning to Brussels, the students will stop at Waterloo, the scene of Napoleon's final defeat.

Students also will tour Maastricht, The Netherlands, where they will hear presentations from faculty members at the University of Limburg. In Amsterdam, the group will tour a Heineken production facility, which is the largest beer production facility in Europe, visit the home of Anne Frank and take a canal tour.

The trip next takes the students to Euskirchen, Germany, where they will tour a Procter & Gamble plant, which is the sister plant to Procter & Gamble Paper Products Co. north of Cape Girardeau. The Procter & Gamble plant in Euskirchen is the largest diaper manufacturing facility in Europe. While in Germany, the students also will visit Heidelberg, the oldest university town in Western Germany. In Heidelberg, the students will tour the BASF chemical company and castles along the Rhine River, and will attend a dinner at which a public relations official representing the U.S. Army in Western Europe will speak.

The group then will travel to Rothenburg, Germany, on the Romanic Trail, where they will visit the enclosed walled city and discover what life was like in the 1300s. Next, they will travel to Pilsen in the Czech Republic, where they will hear a political science professor from the University of Western Bohemia speak. Students of Christopher Koy, a former Southeast Missouri State University foreign languages instructor who now teaches English at the University of Western Bohemia, will act as tour guides for the U.S. student group. While in Pilsen, the group also will tour Skoda Motor Works, an automobile manufacturer recently purchased by Volkswagon. Representatives of the company will speak to students about the current transition period within the company under new Western European ownership. In Pilsen, the students also will attend a dinner at which a marketing professor from the University of Western Bohemia will speak.

Next, the group will travel to Prague, where students from the University of Western Bohemia will join them as they visit various tourist sites. They also will visit the resort city of Regensburg, Germany, tour the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau, Germany, and tour museums, the Glockenspiel at City Hall, Frauenkirche, Hofbrauhaus and Schloss Nymphenburg in Munich.

While in Munich, the students also will tour Siemens World Headquarters, where they will have the opportunity to meet the vice president of international relations and an international product development representative for the company. Also in Munich, the group will take a walking tour of the BMW Museum and visit the Olympic Village. On one day, they will visit Fussen and Neuschwanstein in the castle region of southern Germany. The Disney Castle at Disney theme parks is patterned after this castle. The trip will end with sightseeing in Frankfurt, Germany.

Students enrolled in the European Study Program will earn three college credit hours in either "International Marketing," "International Management," "International Business" or "Transcultural Experience." Before departing for Europe, the students wrote a paper on either a business or cultural topic, and gave presentations to other students in the class on their assigned topic. Students also were to locate articles about the companies they will be visiting and draft abstracts on them. While in Europe, the students are required to keep a daily diary, reflecting on what they have seen as well as contrasting and comparing similarities and differences between U.S. and European business practices.

Students earning international business credit will complete an essay final exam during an eight-hour flight returning to the United States. Students earning "Transcultural Experience" credit must write four papers upon their return to the United States, summarizing the major cultural institutions -- economic, historic, religious and political/legal -- they observed during the trip.

Cost of the program for students is $2,395 plus incidental fees.

Heischmidt says students who participate in the European Study Program "increase their employability" when searching for a job. "Everybody has taken English or accounting courses, but few students have had this type of experience," he said.

The program also broadens students' awareness of differences in cultures and, over the past few years, has spawned heightened student interest in foreign language and cultural classes upon their return to Southeast. For many students, this is truly a life-changing experience that they will remember the rest of their lives, Heischmidt said.

"Many even begin considering semester-long European experiences," he added.

The European Study Program has been so successful, growing from eight student participants in its first year to 60 this year, that Heischmidt and Gordon say they would like to expand the program into Australia, New Zealand, China and Japan in the future.