Summer Immersion at The Lauder Institute

Summer Immersions

An integral part of a student’s Program of Concentration – Global, Africa (General), Africa (Language), Latin America, East and Southeast Asia, Europe, or South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa – is the Summer Immersion which takes place in a student’s first year in the Lauder program. Students travel to multiple sites to learn about the culture, history, social customs, and business practices in the target region.

Language Programs of Concentration

The 2024 5-week summer immersion for language programs of concentration aims to develop superior-level language proficiency for informal and formal contexts through daily and systematic formal language instruction and through active engagement in planned activities. Students study texts highlighting selected topics and genres. At the same time, they acquire cultural knowledge and practice culturally appropriate behavior. Outside the structured language classroom, students complete field-based language tasks and keep notes on academic lectures by invited lecturers. Selected themes in the language syllabus will overlap with symposia, lectures, corporate and non-corporate visits, and interactions with local communities.

Locations for our 2024 summer immersions are provided below.

Global and Africa-General Programs of Concentration

For students in the Global or Africa-General Programs of Concentration, the summer immersion is a multi-country introduction to leading issues in global business, international politics, cross-border transactions, and intercultural communication. Students will gain exposure and understanding of these matters from the summer immersion through a combination of classroom lectures, corporate visits, practitioner engagement, field exercises, and intercultural activities. Time in each locale can range from a few days to one week depending on program needs.

Locations for our 2024 summer immersions are provided below.

Lectures

Classroom lectures will provide students with contextual knowledge and historical background to enhance their critical thinking skills and their capacity to engage corporate, government, and non-government practitioners effectively in their field.

Corporate Visits

Corporate visits have two main purposes: first, they aim to introduce students to leading and new industries of global and country-specific significance; and second, to provide students with a “lab-like” setting in which to examine how competitive, macroeconomic, intercultural, and geopolitical factors affect management policies and practice.

Field Exercises

Field exercises are geared to enhance the global business leadership capacity and knowledge accumulation of our students through self-directed and shared tasks that require team participation, intercultural communication, public presentations, and self-assessment.

Other Program Activities

Cultural immersion is infused throughout the above three activity areas, as well as, more conventionally, through the introduction of country-specific cultural icons and exposure to museums, music, marketplaces, and neighborhoods that make explicit the socio-cultural origins of differences in values, tastes, and economic organization and practice.