May 2, 2012
COPY BY: Rana McDonald, 806-651-2129, rmcdonald@wtamu.eduCollege of Business Students End Semester with Trip to Denmark, Sweden
CANYON, Texas—School is out for the summer by May 12 for many at West Texas A&M University, but for a group of students in the College of Business, the fun is just about to begin.
That’s when 22 students in majors ranging from accounting to computer information systems will travel more than 4,000 miles to learn about Scandinavian and Nordic economies. The 12-day sojourn marks the University’s first-ever study abroad trip to Sweden and Denmark and will give WTAMU students a first-hand look at how the two countries have been shaped by social democracy and IT-driven entrepreneurship. The group, along with Dr. Jeffery Babb, assistant professor in computer information systems, Dr. De’Arno De’Armond, assistant professor of finance, and Lynsee Womble, M.B.A. candidate and dean’s secretary in the College of Business, will focus on the Øresund Region with a home base at the Copenhagen Business School. They also will have connections with the Department of Informatics and the School of Entrepreneurship to help in their quest to learn more about the region that includes Copenhagen, Denmark and Malmö, Sweden.
The trip will earn students credit toward a course in Industrial Organization and Regulation (ECON 4301 and ECON 5301) based on participation and discussion during the trip and a final paper about the experience.
"We are excited that our students will have an opportunity to receive instruction and lecture from Danish business educators," Babb said. "As we are in the Øresund Region to study Nordic and Scandinavian capitalism, we also will visit local and regional businesses to learn more about the Øresund area as a transnational economy."
The trip will include stops at many historical attractions as well as several Danish and Swedish companies.
"We will visit the Microsoft Development Center in Vedbaek, Denmark, where we will learn about Microsoft’s research and development initiatives in the area of enterprise resource planning and distributed computing," Babb said. "We also will visit Danske Bank to learn about regional and national electronic currency policies."
Other stops planned during the 12-day trip include Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Lund University in Lund, Sweden, LEGOland in Billund, Denmark, Kronberg Castle and various museums.
College of Business students traveling abroad are listed by hometown, classification and major.
Amarillo
Keri Cornelison, junior general business major
Amanda Haskins, senior computer information systems major
Ifrah Kanwal, M.B.A. candidate
Abel Olivas, senior computer information systems major
Joanna Ritchie, junior computer information systems major
Alec Sengsouriya, junior marketing major
Canyon
Lynsee Womble, M.B.A. candidate
China
Beibei Kang, M.B.A. candidate
Xiaolu Sun, graduate student in accounting
Jiamin Wang, sophomore accounting major
Shuqi Zhang, junior finance major
Cleburne
Laura Beth Hallman, graduate student in finance and economics
England
Sarah Boorman, senior computer information systems major
Hereford
Lee Betzen, senior management major
Humble
Josh Edwards, graduate student in finance and economics
Japan
Yuiko Sadoyama, senior computer information systems major
Manor
Ashley Peterson, junior accounting major
McPherson, Kan.
Dallas Nelson, senior finance major
Monahans
Bobby Fabian, junior computer information systems major
Petersburg
Aaron Voight, junior management major
Plainview
Kolten Wilder, junior finance major
Sunray
Trent Trahern, graduate student in finance and economics
Tennessee Colony
Leif Knippers, sophomore finance major
—WTAMU—