UMaine Travel-Study Business Class Heading to Russia
Contacts: John Mahon, 581-1968; Andrei Strukov, 581-1925; George Manlove, 581-3756
ORONO – Special travel-study courses offered through the University of Maine previously have focused on Canada, Europe, China and other regions, as international interest keys on areas of rising global significance.
A springtime travel-study course being offered through the Maine Business School and Division of Lifelong Learning now takes up international entrepreneurship in Russia.
The course, which involves several class sessions prior to a May 11 departure for Moscow, includes discussions with business men and women who have started successful businesses in Russia. The two-week trip will include visiting famous historic sites in two of Russia’s largest cities — Moscow and St. Petersburg — and a smaller community, Syktyvkar, where the group will meet with Syktyvkar State University students and faculty.
The three-credit course is open to UMaine upper class students and members of the community who can enroll as non-degree students, says Robert White, associate provost and dean of the Division of Lifelong Learning. A cost of $3,390 includes all fees associated with travel to, from and inside Russia, some meals, accommodations, museum entrance fees and guided tours during the trip. In addition, students pay the regular tuition or fee rates for the course.
“International Entrepreneurship” is being co-taught by John Mahon, business professor and dean of the College of Business, Public Policy and Health, and Andrei Strukov, who grew up in Russia, teaches Russian language classes at UMaine and who works as an instructional technology development specialist in the Department of Information Technologies on campus.
Informational sessions about the class are scheduled for Nov. 12 and Nov. 19 at 6 p.m. in Room 218 of the D.P. Corbett Business Building at UMaine.
“The objective is, even though Russia is a capitalist country, they have a lot more government involvement in everyday life,” says Strukov. “Students will see how those factions interplay.”
Mahon says the Russia travel-study class will help participants understand more about the politics, economy, culture and policies of Russia at a critically important time as traditional boundaries of world trade shift.
“New business ventures are how jobs are created and new innovations developed and brought to market,” says Mahon, who also is director of the college’s Maine Business School. “We will have the rare opportunity to talk with entrepreneurs from around the world who are and have developed businesses in the rapidly growing economy of Russia.”
Last year, UMaine students visiting Russia met with business and government leaders overseeing the country’s vast oil and natural gas reserves and forest products, to explore Russian management practices.
Additional details, including class credit information and an itinerary, are available on the business school website. Enrollment registration closes at the end of December.