Study abroad experiences lead to new skills, internship opportunities
Morgan Prosser, a junior from Shawnee, Kansas, majoring in marketing with a minor in psychology, has furthered connections and understanding of herself through two study abroad experiences at KU.
Prosser always had the idea of studying abroad in the back of her mind when making her college decision. Choosing KU was easy because of its global reach and many opportunities to explore educational experiences on a global scale.
“I’ve always been a Jayhawk, so when I visited and came to the business school, I was just really impressed,” Prosser said. “I just felt like there was a lot of opportunity for me here.”
As a freshman, Prosser was a part of the Business Leadership Program (BLP), which provides coaching and curriculum to a group of 30 incoming freshmen. The program supports, encourages and challenges these students to give them long-lasting leadership skills.
The BLP hosts a faculty-led study abroad trip each summer, which seamlessly jump started Prosser’s journey of learning and traveling abroad.
“The Business Leadership Program has a group that goes to Slovenia every year with the Self Engineering Leadership Fellows Program, so it was really easy to get started,” Prosser said.
The trip is led by Jennifer Harrison, Business Leadership Program director, and Corey Behrens, the Self Engineering Leadership Fellows Program director.
In the span of 10 days, the group traveled around Slovenia and studied the country’s unique business and engineering practices while learning about the local culture through guided tours, site visits and guest lecturers.
Through this trip, Prosser said she was able to open her mind to how business is done globally while seeing local companies she never would have known about and learning about their business approaches.
This short program ignited Prosser’s enthusiasm for traveling and studying abroad, motivating her to use the KU study abroad offices to find another program that was a perfect fit for her.
“After the Slovenia program, I wanted to study abroad again for a longer period of time,” Prosser said. “I went to the study abroad offices and talked to the advisors. My main question was how I pick a program, and they helped me narrow it down.”
From there, Prosser learned about how she could take business classes in Vienna, Austria, for three weeks in the summer. She chose this program because of the central location and seamless fit with her class schedule.
Over the three weeks in the summer of 2023, she studied at WU Vienna Summer University, a top business school in Europe, and took two courses alongside students from more than 40 different countries: International Branding in the Digital Age and Negotiation Management, the KU course equivalents being MGMT 400 Special Topics in Management and MKTG 400 Special Topics in Marketing.
Prosser says one of the highlights from the experience was the social program that brought participants together and on various excursions throughout their summer.
“The program had a really good social program where we went sightseeing to museums, wine gardens and historical landmarks around the city,” Prosser said. “That was really nice to have structured time to get to know the people in the program.”
Some of her favorite memories were a weekend trip to Budapest with friends and time spent visiting the amusement park next to their university almost every day after classes.
Prosser walked away from her experience abroad with new communication skills that she used to work with peers and professionals from different countries and backgrounds. The program brings together almost 200 students from 40 different countries, and learning how to effectively communicate was essential.
“The biggest thing I learned was how to interact with people of different cultures,” Prosser said. “All my closest friends were from different countries like Puerto Rico, Brazil, Switzerland and France. Also, in the classroom setting, being able to adapt your personality to work better with other people was a really important skill, as we did a lot of group work.”
Following these unforgettable experiences for Prosser, she decided to continue her connections with the business school’s study abroad program by becoming a study abroad peer advisor in the Global Business Studies (GBS) office in the School of Business. In that role, she helps other students who have questions about studying abroad and provides support as they plan out their best study abroad experience. Prosser urges students to consider studying abroad during their time at the school.
“I recommend studying abroad because it is an amazing way to go out of your comfort zone and get an experience you won’t ever be able to do again outside of college,” Prosser said. “You meet people from all over the world and gain skills that will set you apart from others in the future.”
Outside of taking classes at the School of Business, Prosser serves as the senior vice president of Delta Sigma Pi, KU’s business fraternity, where she plans and directs their recruitment efforts throughout the year. She is also the vice president of operations for the school’s marketing club and a member of Delta Gamma.
With just one year left before graduation, Prosser is looking ahead to her future career and says her experiences studying abroad through KU have confirmed that she wants to continue to work and learn in the global business field. This summer, she will work at Burns & McDonnell in Kansas City, Missouri, as a social media and brand intern and says studying abroad helped her resume stand out throughout the hiring process.
“I know that I want to either go abroad for a few years and get a job, or work with a company that does a lot of work globally,” Prosser said. “Both of my study abroad programs have been my biggest highlight at KU so far.”
By Lauryn Zebrowski
