International Study Course

On Episode 9 of SAF Ready the Podcast, host Sam welcomes Steve Balaban, a professor at the School of Accounting and Finance.
 
They dive into the exciting details of our unique undergraduate "International Study Course," designed to enrich students’ understanding of global business through firsthand experiences and cultural immersion. Discover everything you should know from the application process to the exciting opportunities awaiting you! 
 
https://uwaterloo.ca/school-of-accounting-and-finance/students/student-opportunities/saf-international-study-course 

Transcript

0:09

Hi everyone, and welcome to SAF Ready the Podcast here at the University of Waterloo. On this podcast we'll have a variety of guest students, faculty and staff to all let you in on what the School of Accounting and Finance has to offer. I'm Sam and I'll be your host. Today we have Steve Balaban who is one of our professors here at the school and he's going to be talking today about the international study, of course, which is one that he teaches and runs and has all the ins and outs and understanding about what it is. So thank you again so much for coming. Steve, how are you today? I'm great. Thanks for having me. Sam. Absolutely. So we're going to kind of dive right in. So what is the international study course? So think of this right, it's a course where you get to go to a different place in the world to learn from professionals of what's happening in that world. For example, going to the UK to learn about Brexit. Oh cool. Going to Hong Kong to learn about what's going on in Asia. Yeah. And during the course, we get to interview professionals before the course we get the research professionals, and then after the course we get to write up what we learn from these professionals. That's so cool. So do you look like. Is it kind of like all student run? Like the like, how is it kind of the process of like finding those connections in those different countries work? So the students do most of the work. So the students kind of help identify what companies that we have. They reach out to those companies, do all the preparation and figure out where we're going to eat. When we're there, we organize dinner, very important. We have open dinners where we get to meet professionals. So people will come and the students get to meet them and the students find out if we're going to go, let's say we're going to Indonesia, right? Right. And the students will find that the course restaurants that they want to go to, professionals want to go to. And so they do. They do all of it. that's so cool. Yeah, well, that's awesome. Yeah. So yeah, so kind of like, what is, so it's a course, that's all. So they get like student credit for school credit for, obviously. So but what my understanding is that you have to apply to also be a part of this course 100%. Okay. So kind of like what's the application process and like the timeline and the expectations for those applications. Okay. So so for example, right now we're in July and we're going to be going to Switzerland in in winter 2024. So that's going to be an end of April. So the applications actually came out this morning, July 24th. Apply, so yeah, apply. So students will apply over the next month and a half. So applications will be due in September. They have to answer a bunch of questions why they want to be on the trip. It's part of the resumé, transcript and all that kind of stuff. Okay. And then and then after that we interview a shortlist and then after we interview everybody, we accept 12 people for the trip. Now, when we started the trip back at 2017, it was, you know, 12 person per trip. But we only had one trip a year. Now we have three trips a year. Oh really? So it's like really cool. That's so cool. So you guys have one for like, I'm guessing like every term then. Yeah. Or is it like, no. So, so what the way it works is just because we can only do one in the fall because of the holidays after the term and we do it, the actual trip is after after exams. So we do one in the winter and then we do two in the spring. So for example, this year we went to Singapore in the winter and this spring we're going to go to both Indonesia and Vietnam. So it’ll be 36 students that will be like end up going on this trip this year, which which is just a fantastic learning opportunity. That is so cool. I know like making those connections, like on an international scale just seems like such an invaluable resource. And the fact that it's like getting your school credit for it. And think of this you're in a board room, right? And usually it's fairly senior professionals like managing director CEOs, whatever. Yeah. And they're just kind of telling us everything they want. They want to make the most of this for the students because the students have this one and a half hour or 2 hours with them. And so students can ask anything. They tell us everything and learn just so much from. It's like it's like it's like a once in a lifetime opportunity. that's so cool. Yeah, that's amazing. I want to do this. So obviously you've been running this course for a few years now, So like, what has been your favourite destination that the course has taken you? Ok now because of the fact that my ex-students are watching this and, and they always ask me all the time. So after we went back to Singapore, was this your favourite trip? They asked after Germany, was this your favourite trip? So I'm going to have to say all of them, but I'm going to actually break this down, right? So okay, So we went to the UK to learn what's really going on with Brexit and we had so many different interviews. So like what? What's an example of one? We met the old secretary of State really, Gavin Barwell kind of told us a little bit about political situation there, but then we go to Hong Kong, right? And we we went to see HSBC and the iconic building and in Hong Kong we went there and then through like meeting everybody, we learned about like the Belt and Road initiative that is going is going on in Asia. Then we went to Germany to learn about we got to see Deutsche Bank. Right? And so First Bank in Frankfurt, that was that was like really cool. And then through our interviews, learn about what's going on in Europe. We just went to Singapore, right? So we went to the Port PSA. It's one of the leading ports in the world and we got like an inside look. So it's up to choose one. And we did a bunch of virtual trips. Don't forget, don't forget that we did this during the pandemic, really, and we did this virtual trip on a regular basis. And what we did in the virtual trip because of the fact that it was easy for people to say yes to do like a Zoom call. So we're like waking up early to interview someone in Europe. Then during the day we're interviewing someone in Toronto, right? And then a little later we're interviewing someone on the West Coast, let's say in California, and then even later we're interviewing someone from Asia. So the virtual trip, we got to interview people from around the world and learn about that. So I don't want to even just pick one of the destinations because a virtual trip was great. So that is so cool. That's awesome. You guys were able to run it through COVID. I know so much stuff got like shut down. So it's really cool that you, like adapted into like making it still like feasible for students to do because I know that was probably a disappointing thing for students. Not to be able to go now was great, and the students are the ones that pivoted, right? The students are the ones that kind of lead this trip As soon as are the ones that are getting people to sit down with us. So I get 100% of credit to our students. I think our students are fantastic. That's so cool that you guys it's like, I love that, that it's like a whole planning process and like, you get the whole like behind the scenes because I feel like a lot of us, when we like, sign up for these conferences and sign up for all these things, like be a part of like, we don't know the back end of how like we're getting people there, how we're getting everything going. Well, yeah, so Sam behind the scenes. So what happens is actually during the semester, so there's actually student teams. We have a corporate relations team that help us reach out and organize meetings. Yeah, we have a meals team that helps us basically look at, you know, what restaurants that go to an event like that. We have a culture team, right, that kind of is involved in kind of getting us prepared for the culture of the place that we go in there. There's also logistics, which actually helps us kind of get from one place to another and figure out how we're going to actually organize everything and on the weekends actually. So the way the trip works is from Monday to Friday we meet professionals, but then on the weekend before and after we do sightseeing and the students plan those days. So you can imagine all the different sites we've seen in these places. That's so fun. Yeah, it's like getting like a vacation, but also a learning experience in one. Exactly. Right. So yeah, I guess it's kind of like perfectly leads into the next question. So why should students be motivated to participate in this class? This is like a once in a lifetime opportunity, right? Like you get to go to a different area of the world, you get access to senior professionals during the day that are basically willing to answer any questions you have and will tell you things from a perspective you've probably never heard before. Yeah, area. Then at night, every day we actually invite more professionals to come for these dinners where you hear kind of what's really going, really going on, what's going on off the record. Well, yeah, actually. So we had we had one experience in the UK where we had a presentation by a company and the whole presentation was why Brexit was bad. And it was like, okay, don't Brexit's bad, Brexit is not good, whatever. Then that night at dinner, two of the individuals that presented were drawn us for dinner and then they both voted for Brexit and explained their own reasons why. And another stood the saying, okay, wait a second, what do we write in our report? Right? And so it's like it's like you really kind of get the behind the scenes. But another thing that also students got is the ability to make connections around the world. Yeah, right. So what ends up happening is after these trips, some of these firms will actually hire our students. Really? Which is like really, really, really cool. So you build connections, you get to learn what's going on in the world. It's it's I wish this experience was around when I was a student. I know. Actually. That's what happens. So every every time we have these dinners, we invite alumni, a lot of alumni in these different areas to come out. And they're like, Where was this trip? Back when I was a student, I'm like, you know, sorry about that. Sorry. It's just exclusive. Unfortunately not. So if I'm a student, I'm not motivated. I'm like, okay, so what's going on? Right? Obviously limited spots, but keep applying. Yup limited spots but keep applying, right? And if you don't make it, we usually give you reasons why so that you can improve. So we're not like one of those. You know, you're deciding you know, when you have an interview and you're like, we write back for feedback and then you get ghosted. That doesn't happen to me like that automatic reply. It's like, That's not so. What I was hoping for, we want our students to improve, right? So we want if a student doesn't get it. We actually had a student one year. That interview didn't get on and that student and came to see me individually. We kind of went over what happened and then applied the next year and then went on so, that's cool. That's so yeah. So we want you to go on. We want you to succeed. Yeah, it's like, so please, please apply. It's, it's an amazing experience. Yeah. No, such a cool experience. That is so cool. So yeah. And like, I guess like kind of associating with, like, the destination. But what's been like, your favourite, like, memory, Like a core memory, Like the obviously like you were explaining like the Brexit thing. That's so funny. I think that's hilarious. But do you have like a favorite memory of like, just like, not even just meetings, but like a specific destination, like a tour place you guys went to or anything like that? I actually actually one of my, one of my favorite memories actually happened a couple of months ago. So, as I mentioned, we're going to Indonesia and Vietnam. I'm actually flying out in a couple of weeks. So. Wow. Right. So it's pretty it's pretty soon. Okay. Now, before every trip, we throw a kickoff party in Toronto and invite all the past trips, that's so fun. Right, it is a lot of fun. It is a lot of fun. And so so I remember so a couple of months ago, we're throwing our kickoff party for Indonesia and Vietnam. And I remember being in a circle at the kickoff party where there's someone that went to the UK, someone that went to Hong Kong, someone that went to Germany, someone that went to Singapore, and then we had people that were just applied for Indonesia and Vietnam and just got it. Yeah. And I remember going around and everyone kind of telling their favourite story. And so my favourite story was sitting there and listening to that. And not only that, seeing the exchange right, the pass down of knowledge, and also that the connections that are being made between the years, like I thought it was super cool because a lot of people that went to some of the old destinations or graduated now. And so it's really you're connecting. And it was like I remember I remember sitting there, I remember listening to that conversation like, okay, this is awesome. Yeah, that's so cool. That's pretty cool. So like, they get to, like, so the connections that they're making, it's kind of like because you are, you just kind of like create an entirely new opportunity for networking because like not only if you're like talking to like the current business executive, they're going to go for that particular trip. But you can talk to the kids that have graduated already and are working and they already did those experiences, like it's a whole other networking thing now. And think of all the people we've met. So we go to we're going to Germany to two years after we went to the UK. So what do we do? We reach out all the people we met in the UK and they're like, No, no, no, this isn't just like a regular student trip, but people from Waterloo are amazing. You have to meet them, right? And so we end up getting all these people that want to meet us, right? We're going to Indonesia, Vietnam. What do we do? We reach out to people we just met in Singapore, we went to Singapore. What do we do we reach out to the people we met in Hong Kong. And the thing is like our students prepare so much for these meetings, so they always impress the professionals. So that's one. Another part of my favorite parts is as after the meeting, right, the students kind of walk a little ahead and then I talked to professional and they're like all like we've never had a student group like this. This, this, this is this is amazing. They are the future. They're amazing. If we can ever help with future trips, we we're going to help with anything, right? So, yeah, so, so it's just like it's it's amazing. Yeah. So I'm curious, like, what specifically do they talk about in these meetings? Like, is it like kind of like a conference style? Is it kind of like a networking style? Like, do they kind of just pick their brain? Like what's kind of like the structure, I guess I would say, okay, so before each meeting. So what happens is before we actually leave Waterloo, the each students assigned a company and they have to do research on the company, right? So what they do is they research a company and that in that country, the individuals that we're meeting as well as prepare and prepare interview questions. Okay, So, so so our students are super prepared no matter what the format is going to be. Yeah. Okay. So now you ask about the format. Okay. Okay. So it depends. So sometimes we get there and they're like, what do we want to talk about for 2 hours? Right? And then we just kind of say or tell us a little bit about you, even though we already know, and then we go for 2 hours and pepper them with pepper is probably not the right word. We ask them lots of our thought provoking questions right. Okay. So that that's one option. Another option is they might have a presentation for us. So the presentation could be asked like we've had a private equity firm that's gone into some of their portfolio companies and how they create value. Right. We've had another presentation on just like more of the economics of, you know, Hong Kong versus China. All right. So they do different types of things that we that we can do. So sometimes they’ll have a presentation prepared, but other times, other times there might be a tour. So for example, we went to Hutchison Ports in Hong Kong and we actually went out to the port and actually went through. Then we went to like the control rooms and stuff like that. It was like super cool. And then we also ask questions along the way. Yeah. So the format is kind of flexible on to what the professionals prefer. Yeah, but it's a combination of tours, then presenting Q&A, like you mention it, your guess it and that's what we do. That's so cool. Yeah. Because like I, I do like the tours for, like the incoming students and I just like, I never know what like to give them specific details. This is like, so gold this is it's gold information to talk about. Yeah, I it's, it's pretty cool because advertising it is such a big thing I think that students should really know that this is like a huge opportunity and a way to get involved. So so actually so when I teach my upper classes, the students are like, How come you never told me about this? Right? So it's it's more of like, you know, we have, you know, we already have a decent amount of people applying, but we have way more people applying if they know about it because lot of people after that are like, I wish I was available for some time. Like, you could have taken it. You just had to apply, you could have. So but it's like, Yeah, I'm a student. Should have, could have, would have, I know what exactly exactly how it is, right? Yeah. So I guess my good like, I think students also just want to get to know you because obviously, like, you're a huge part of what makes this course so successful. So like, are you like what's kind of like your story of how you got to SAF as a prof. How you got to SAF as a prof, okay, so I actually did math at Waterloo. Oh really I'm the first year actually double degree so yeah back at Waterloo business at Laurier. yeah I remember that. So yeah. And now we were probably we're a pilot program at the time and I did my last two years of my co-op at a wealth management firm, the Wealth Management went public of the one of the partners of wealth management had a family office. So I ended up working at this family office and private equity. Yeah, a long story short, I ended up starting my own private equity firm. I was that I end up connecting with the university and the university asked me to create a private equity course. So that's how I got into that. That's that's a very, very quick version. You created your course. That's so cool. So that's my quick version of how I got to SAF. That's all. Graduated from Waterloo and I came back and we love when the alum come back and I feel like there's so many profs in SAF that are alumni. There's quite a lot of crazy. Yeah. we love that. And they like they have the University of Waterloo experience, so they know even more, which I feel like it's just such an additional perk. So ten out of ten, 100%. I think that's the kind of all the questions that I had. Is there anything else that you want to talk about that like you want it like this is what you need to know about this? Yeah. So just anybody that's thinking of applying, this is what you need to do. But before you apply it, talk to anybody that has been on the trip taught you it's public on where we've gone. This school does a great job of putting on the Instagram and stuff like that. So yeah, talk to someone who's gone to Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany. You can talk to any of the students that have down there, including the virtual course, talk to any of the students that are on the course and ask them about their experience. That's what you should do if you're like on the fence of should I apply or should I not apply? They'll kind of give you the details and they'll kind of let you know. Amazing. Well, yeah, Well, thank you so much for coming. Hey, thanks for having know. This was amazing. And I hope that this gives some students a little bit more insight of what the course is like and kind of the whole application process and how to get excited because, wow, that's serious. I really want to do this now. Well, thanks for having me so much because I love talking about it because like every year I come back, I'm like that. That was just like, so, so incredible. Yeah, like, so incredible. Like the information that we got. I think. I think actually one thing I guess I guess to mention. So some of the meetings, you know, you get information you're expecting, but there's quite a lot of meetings where you're like, wow, like, I had no idea that that's how, you know, professionals in this country think about this issue like that. I had no idea that this was a perspective on this. It's just like it's like you come back and you're like, Wow. Yeah. It's just it's like just like you're gaining so much knowledge and it's just so cool. I did have one more question, so hopefully I have one more answer. It's the boring part, but I know that students ask about this. What's the cost of all this kind of fun stuff? Like I know that like, I know there's like a I talked to Victoria briefly about how there's like inclusion with fees with students and like with that they're like, yeah, I'll just I figure I'll leave it to you. So actually so we actually just got a good amount of donation from our Chancellor. So thank you Dominic, for that. So now with, with the donations from the Chancellor, it's less cost for the students. Okay. So students will cover their own flight. Okay. To get over there. But we now cover accommodation and we cover the dinners and all and a lot of the expenses that we can. They're still their own student expenses, but we do we are able to cover a little more thanks to our support. Oh that's great. Okay. Yeah, because I know that, like, it's it sounds like such an amazing trip. And I know what students really want to make sure, but we also want to make sure that you guys have all the facts. And then one other thing. One other thing. If a student, for whatever reason, can't afford whatever we whatever it's going to be, and usually on the application, we try to say how much it's going to cost if, if a student can't afford that, then there's there's different types of awards on campus and different ways to kind of do it, which we will help facilitate. But there's like an international experience award and other things that qualify for when you're doing this. So we try to we try to make it that it's not the cost that is is a barrier for people. Yes, of course. So don't let it deter you. definitely think about that. But yeah, thank you so much. Yeah. I just want to make sure I got that like the nitty gritty information because students are always wondering, you know for sure. Got to do the budgeting of course of course. But yes, thank you again so much for coming. It was so great to have you on now. Thanks for having me Sam, I appreciate it. Absolutely. Awesome