Study Abroad Case Study: Notre Dame University

Notre Dame MBA Students Learn Spanish in Santiago, Chile

Notre Dame University
MBA Program
Faculty-led Study Abroad Program in Santiago, Chile

While English is without a doubt the primary language of global business, Spanish remains an important asset for those pursuing business careers in the Americas. For this reason, Notre Dame University has been sending MBA students to study Spanish at Bridge in Chile for the past 10 years.

Industry:

Education

Summary

Organizing successful faculty-led study abroad programs can be a challenge. Logistics in South America can be difficult to organize, and safety concerns are crucial to address. It is also important to successfully integrate a language instruction component for the program, which assures students have a sufficient language level to begin understanding the local culture.

Working directly with Notre Dame University, Bridge coordinates students’ language and cultural training, accommodation assistance, excursions, and an around the clock emergency contact. Students take a week of intensive Spanish training at Bridge upon arrival, which uses the direct conversational method to encourage them to think and speak in Spanish.

A Customized Study Abroad Program

“Simply put the language instruction and personal services provided at BridgeChile surpassed all my expectations. The staff is professional and overly accommodating; they willingly shared local knowledge and created an environment conducive to focusing on my Spanish language development and discovering the Chilean culture. I unreservedly recommend BridgeChile to both students and professionals alike and I plan to use them again in the future.” -Michael D’Agostino, student.

The language training in Chile beings with a very thorough induction course which gives the students the important information they need for living in Chile. This information includes safety tips, tips on acclimating to a new culture, how to travel within and around Santiago, and Santiago social life, among other topics.

While the Notre Dame students take their Spanish course at Bridge, they also attend MBA classes such as Economics, Marketing and Finance at the Universidad Alberto Hurtado. They also participate in many seminars and have guest speakers give them presentations on topics such as Opening the Chilean Market or the Chilean Wine Industry.

Bridge also coordinates the social aspect of the students’ time in Chile.Students take excursions to vineyards such as Concha y Toro or to the Oktoberfest Beer Festival in Malloco. Since the class schedule is normally from Monday to Thursday, the group has the opportunity to travel on the weekends. Many students go to Viña del Mar to bask in the sun and eat delicious seafood, head down south to Pucón to climb a volcano, or go hiking in Patagonia.

Results

The program’s ten-year history with Bridge is a testament to its success. Students leave Santiago not only with an improved Spanish level, but also with an increased awareness and understanding of business and culture in Latin America. Over the years many students from Notre Dame have returned to Chile upon graduation as hired professionals for local multi-nationals.  It provides an immense sense of pride that our former students enjoyed their experience so much, that they were willing to return after their studies to live and work in Chile.

“I just wanted to personally say thank the BridgeChile staff for all the help these last few months.  It has been an amazing experience for me and I can’t tell you how wonderful and comforting it was to walk into your offices the first week and be received with open arms.  Especially after my fiasco with my stolen wallet, it was great to know that we had resources in Santiago who could help us with anything and everything.  Also, I wanted to let you know how great our professor, Silvio, was. He was a great teacher and really pushed our class to get comfortable with speaking right away.” – Michelle Mellard, student.