As a tribute to the school’s international students, Carlson School of Management’s Dean David Kidwell hosted a reception to thank the students for choosing the University.
Kidwell spoke to a group of more than 30 international students studying in the Carlson School.
“They are an absolutely, incredibly talented group of young people who go on to be leaders wherever they decide to work in the world; we’re probably fortunate to have had the opportunity to educate them,” Kidwell said.”I just want them to know that we really appreciate having them here and just now say thank you.”
Luis Moreno Miquilena, a second-year graduate student and the president of GLOBE, a Carlson international business association, attended the reception. He said the role of international students has changed throughout the years.
“We’ve come from a passive role to an active role,” said Moreno Miquilena.
He said international students participate more in class, and professors are encouraging them to be more involved in classroom discussions. Some professors even ask international students to participate in presentations on their countries, thus giving the class a broader scope.
“Some of the American students are very interested in the interaction and they show tolerance for us, and they even come to us, help us, support us, and some of them are interested in listening to what we know, how things are in our countries,” he said.
Gary Lindblad, director of the school’s Master’s of Business Administration program, said Americans need to know how to do business in the United States, and the international students allow American students to experience what it is like to work in other countries.
“What international students do is they bring the world to the MBA classroom,” Lindblad said.
Sukyul Suh, an international student from South Korea, will graduate from Carlson later this month and said a particular workshop at the school has helped him land a top internship.
For two years, he attended Friday workshops, which concentrated on introducing international students to American business and a way of living in general.
Suh began to understand how to make presentations, write business memos and the basic structure of American business settings.
“Two years ago, (the Carlson School) recognized that international students needed more support while they were here; they needed a community; they needed more classwork; how to write in American style; how to do presentations from an international perspective,” said Sheryl Holt, an English composition coordinator for non-native speakers.
This August marks the first time the MBA program will hold a week-long orientation designed for international students. Holt will teach the students for six hours every day. They will be introduced to American class structure by watching video tapes of class discussions, reading newspapers and learning American acronyms with which many international students are unfamiliar.
“Americans need to be internationalized as much as internationals need to be Americanized, and I think that’s just a really nice balance,” Holt said.

Ada Simanduyeva covers international perspectives and welcomes comments at [email protected].