At Home in a World of Business The Huntsman Program in International Studies & Business
When Brooke Jones, W'03, C'03, was scoping out colleges as a high-school senior, she planned to attend a rigorous international relations program — until she found the Huntsman Program in International Studies & Business, a joint-degree program between Wharton and the College of Arts and Sciences.
"It was the world's leading program of its kind," Jones said. "And it combined what I wanted: theoretical economics, history, and language with the practical aspect of business."
The Huntsman Program is designed to give the approximately 160 student who are enrolled in the program a unique education, one that blends business skills with the liberal arts.
In the Huntsman Program, you have to meld the local and the global. “If you're going to be a world leader in your profession, you have to have global experience," explained
Janice Bellace, faculty director for the Huntsman program and the Samuel Blank Professor of Legal Studies. "Huntsman students recognize the need for professional management education, but they also want to understand the social, political, and cultural factors that set the context for economic decisions.”
Incoming students arrive at Penn having achieved proficiency in one language, and they continue their study of this language by taking advanced courses their freshman year. Huntsman students take a semester abroad to hone their language skills and immerse themselves in a different culture. If Huntsman students study in Lyon, they take classes with French students, are taught by a French professor, and live in the home of a French family.
Huntsman participants come from as far away as Asia and Africa, and as near as the greater Philadelphia area. They each specialize in one of 10 languages, ranging from Mandarin to Russian to Hindi, and all have different business interests.
“The Huntsman Program is a community of unique, talented, high-achieving individuals who share a common desire to understand another society and to apply what they have learned in their professional lives,” said Managing Director Ginger Mace. “The students both learn from and support each other.”
