Lessons Learned South of the Border

Traveling with the Huntsman School of Business to South America was one of the best experiences of my life. Here are a few things I learned from my trip.

First, we are extremely fortunate to live here in the United States. We really take for granted the many freedoms and opportunities we enjoy here the States. From being able to start and run your own business, to drinking water for free at restaurants, we really have many opportunities offered to us that are not available to others.

Second, education is more than reading out of text books, it's applying knowledge to real life situations. While in Peru we worked with the Small Enterprise Education and Development program (SEED) to issue micro loans to start up companies. This required me to apply knowledge I had learned from economic, accounting, finance, and marketing classes. It was extremely satisfying to be able to take concepts taught from my professors and apply it to this project in order to help someone else’s business succeed. It helped me connect the dots between learning and doing, something I believe we as students sometimes forget to do.

Finally, I was reminded just how important it is to build relationships with those around you. I got to know some really great students and faculty while on our trip and learned a lot from them. I’ve forged a bond with them that wouldn’t have been possible without this trip.

I would recommend that every student at Utah State University look for opportunities to get out of the box and try something new and different. By so doing you can develop talents and abilities that you thought you never had. This trip really pushed me to become something better, and I’m glad I did it.

Parker Brower in Rio De Janeiro