A late entry, but nonetheless important.

We had a minor deviation from our provisional schedule. Rather than going to the Reunification Palace in the morning, the students opted to take the morning to relax and to prepare their PP Presentation. I had assigned them a team project using the information provided by the MBA Office, and modifying it in terms of their perspective. Afterward, they divided the slides among themselves to present at STU on May 23 to sell our MBA program. I believed it lent more credibility when the STU students heard it from the MSU students.

We visited the American Center (AC) on the eighth floor in the Diamond Plaza Mall in the afternoon, prior to going to the US Consulate General since they are one block apart on the same street. The AC is being managed by the US State Department under their Cultural Affairs Section. It serves as a resource center providing information from politics to US culture to college prep information for prospective students who wish to study in the US. I saw information from our competitor in Columbia (yes, I tried to avoid mentioning their name on our blog), so I asked the person in charge, and she said to bring our promo stuff so she could put them out for students perusal.

After a brief visit to the AC, we walked to the US ConGen for a briefing by the foreign service officers (FSOs or otherwise known as diplomats). They discussed issues ranging from the sensitive issues between China and Vietnam over the Paracel Islands, to freedom of expression (FB blocking) to economic conditions – great educational stuff. We had this joint briefing with another group of students from Temple Universiy. The diplomats complimented us as being the most professionally dressed group he had ever seen.

Here’s the proof, pictured below with Mr. Thomas Tanner, Public Affairs Officer.