Story - Quinlan - From Chicago to Southeast Asia
Quinlan students try their hand at stone carving while visiting Artisans Angkor in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The NGO is dedicated to preserving traditional handicrafts and culture while training and providing fair wages to locals. PHOTO BY ANNA GAYNOR
From Chicago to Southeast Asia
Experiential learning makes its mark on business students
For Clifford Shultz, professor and Kellstadt Chair of Marketing at Loyola’s Quinlan School of Business, marketing is about more than identifying customers and determining how to reach them. He considers it a way to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems.
“This course is a marketing class, but it’s not simply about selling stuff. It’s about using marketing tools to improve the human condition in complex systems, to improve the quality of life for individual people and their communities,” he said of a class he’s taught for three decades, Comparative Consumer Behavior and Marketing in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand.
The annual course culminates in a trip to Southeast Asia, where students learn about burgeoning markets and are encouraged to use their business skills to better the world, while also getting a chance to experience three distinct cultures and developing economies first-hand. It’s an extension of the Quinlan School of Business’s commitment to both experiential learning and teaching students to prioritize both profits and purpose in their work.
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Quinlan graduate students snap photos of the 12th century Bayon Temple in Cambodia. PHOTO BY ANNA GAYNOR
More than a Textbook
In 2024, the trip became an interdisciplinary endeavor when Molly Melin, a professor of political science, and her students joined the study abroad program. Many of these students had previously joined Melin, whose research focuses on international conflict, on trips to Northern Ireland or Colombia, giving them a chance to see first-hand how different government policies affect peace following a conflict.
鈥淭o talk to people who were affected by Pol Pot鈥檚 genocide, it鈥檚 a lot different from hearing me talk or seeing numbers on a blackboard,鈥� Melin said. The class鈥檚 tour guide in Cambodia lost his family to the Khmer Rouge. Molly Melin, a professor
鈥淗earing what he lived through鈥攊t isn't just something that's a paragraph in a history book somewhere鈥攅nabled people to really put a face to suffering in a way that you can't otherwise,鈥� she added.
Her words echoed what Shultz said when explaining why the class has remained so popular with students for so long.
鈥淪tudents live the essence of these places. They meet experts from many sectors鈥揵usiness, government, education, healthcare. They walk the streets, they feel the humidity on their skin, they walk through markets and feel the hustle-and-bustle of the people,鈥� he said.
The 2024 field study included visits with various businesses and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), serving a meal to children at a school built on a reclaimed minefield, a sunrise exploration of Angkor Wat, and a visit to an elephant sanctuary, as well as panels and lectures on infrastructure, entrepreneurship, good governance, poverty-reduction and healthcare, urban development, tourism, and sustainable marketing and consumption.
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Quinlan student Madison Mayfield looks out over the Great Tonle Sap Lake while on a boat tour in Cambodia. - PHOTO BY ANNA GAYNOR
Lasting Impact
Shultz and Melin hope their empathic field study in emerging economies inspires students to use their careers to solve societal problems and advance social impact. Based on previous experience, it seems like their plan is working.
On the most recent trip to Southeast Asia, the class toured a factory that has created jobs for an underserved community and meets international labor standards, an experience revealing how foreign investment and private businesses can help to improve the quality of life for workers and their communities.
鈥淪o many of our students say, 鈥業 left this place feeling like I connected with these people, and I can make a difference.鈥� Some of them go back to Southeast Asia and get jobs with NGOs and universities, and some apply lessons from the course to assist organizations and neighborhoods in Chicago and elsewhere,鈥� Shultz said.
鈥淭his class is a true example of what 黑料门means to be a 鈥榯ransformative鈥� experience,鈥� Shultz continued. 鈥淚t changes our students鈥� lives鈥揳nd the lives of people in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand.鈥�
Quinlan graduate students snap photos of the 12th century Bayon Temple in Cambodia. PHOTO BY ANNA GAYNOR
More than a Textbook
In 2024, the trip became an interdisciplinary endeavor when Molly Melin, a professor of political science, and her students joined the study abroad program. Many of these students had previously joined Melin, whose research focuses on international conflict, on trips to Northern Ireland or Colombia, giving them a chance to see first-hand how different government policies affect peace following a conflict.
鈥淭o talk to people who were affected by Pol Pot鈥檚 genocide, it鈥檚 a lot different from hearing me talk or seeing numbers on a blackboard,鈥� Melin said. The class鈥檚 tour guide in Cambodia lost his family to the Khmer Rouge. Molly Melin, a professor
鈥淗earing what he lived through鈥攊t isn't just something that's a paragraph in a history book somewhere鈥攅nabled people to really put a face to suffering in a way that you can't otherwise,鈥� she added.
Her words echoed what Shultz said when explaining why the class has remained so popular with students for so long.
鈥淪tudents live the essence of these places. They meet experts from many sectors鈥揵usiness, government, education, healthcare. They walk the streets, they feel the humidity on their skin, they walk through markets and feel the hustle-and-bustle of the people,鈥� he said.
The 2024 field study included visits with various businesses and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), serving a meal to children at a school built on a reclaimed minefield, a sunrise exploration of Angkor Wat, and a visit to an elephant sanctuary, as well as panels and lectures on infrastructure, entrepreneurship, good governance, poverty-reduction and healthcare, urban development, tourism, and sustainable marketing and consumption.
Quinlan student Madison Mayfield looks out over the Great Tonle Sap Lake while on a boat tour in Cambodia. - PHOTO BY ANNA GAYNOR
Lasting Impact
Shultz and Melin hope their empathic field study in emerging economies inspires students to use their careers to solve societal problems and advance social impact. Based on previous experience, it seems like their plan is working.
On the most recent trip to Southeast Asia, the class toured a factory that has created jobs for an underserved community and meets international labor standards, an experience revealing how foreign investment and private businesses can help to improve the quality of life for workers and their communities.
鈥淪o many of our students say, 鈥業 left this place feeling like I connected with these people, and I can make a difference.鈥� Some of them go back to Southeast Asia and get jobs with NGOs and universities, and some apply lessons from the course to assist organizations and neighborhoods in Chicago and elsewhere,鈥� Shultz said.
鈥淭his class is a true example of what 黑料门means to be a 鈥榯ransformative鈥� experience,鈥� Shultz continued. 鈥淚t changes our students鈥� lives鈥揳nd the lives of people in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand.鈥�