“¡Buenos diás niñas! ¿Comó has dormido?” My roommate and I would be greeted with this phrase alongside the glowing face of our Spanish madre every morning as we emerged from our bedroom. With sleep still in our eyes, we would quickly utter “¡Muy bien, gracias!” before hurrying out the door to begin our 25-minute trek to the university.
This summer I was given the opportunity to study abroad in Sevilla, Spain with the Poole College of Management through the Marketing and Language in Sevilla program. I am truly at a loss on how to describe this place, where I lived for six weeks, in a way that will do it justice - words cannot capture the essence of the country and its culture.
We lived in homestays and this allowed us to fully emerge ourselves in the culture and it, for me at least, enhanced the experience tremendously. The people were so kind and welcoming and they have such a different, refreshing perspective on life. Nothing was a rush; everything was done with such a specific purpose, rather than juggled along with half a million other tasks. Time seemed to move slower there and life was stress-free. Every day was full of new adventures and with every corner we turned, it seemed there was something different to experience.
On this trip we took BUS 360, the marketing class required for all students in PCOM, and almost immediately I knew that I wanted to concentrate in marketing. Since we were with an abroad program the class size was considerably smaller than the typical BUS 360 lecture class; we had around 30 students. This allowed all of us to have a personal relationship with our instructor, who many of you probably know, Professor Patrice Nealon. Her naturally charismatic and cheerful nature always began our school day and her passion for marketing was reflected through the positive energy with which she filled her class.
Throughout the course we learned about the different marketing strategies and how to develop and implement a marketing plan. Since we were abroad and there were so few of us, Professor Nealon had us do our marketing plan project on the Sevilla study abroad program. Because we were able to personally experience the service we were marketing for, it made it seem more real and it was fun to brainstorm ways to make our trip even better for future students.
I am so thankful that I participated in the Marketing and Language in Sevilla Study Abroad. I fell in love with the city of Sevilla and its relaxed, but vivid, culture. This experience also opened my eyes to what I wanted to major in. By taking BUS 360 abroad, it truly made the class and what we did much more personal and it helped me get a grasp on what a career in marketing would be like.
