Last month, when Cuba was in the news thanks to President Obama’s historic visit to the island nation, Professor Martin Grossman could brag that he’d been there first.
Indeed, the professor of management who is currently the chairman of the department, along with his colleague, Dr. Christian Delaunay, led 16 students on a study tour of Cuba.
“Cuba is going to explode and we need to explore the opportunities that will be developing there,” Dr. Grossman said.
He should know. Since coming to BSU in 2004, Dr. Grossman has made globalization a focus of his scholarship, not only leading study tours around the world but developing internationally-focused programs for undergraduates, according to Dean Elmore Alexander. It’s one of the reasons he was awarded the 2015 Dr. V. James DiNardo Award for Excellence in Teaching.
This semester’s excursion to Cuba was different from most in that it was a hybrid that mixed a traditional study tour with classroom learning. The students had three sessions with Professors Grossman and Delaunay before the weeklong trip to Cuba, and three after.
“We kind of dreamed up the class,” Professor Grossman said. After the dreaming, of course, came the planning. The course’s objectives ranged from examining Cuba’s place in the global economy to the management and business practices prevalent there. The sixth class will be reserved for student presentations. While on the island, Professors Grossman and Delaunay and the students visited everything from a cigar factory to an urban organic farm; there were also lectures from a government official, as well as an economics professor from the University of Havana.
“It was very enlightening,” Dr. Grossman said, adding that the students also got to experience a bit of Cuban life through the eyes of a few of their contemporaries. “The kids had a great time and met some young people and hung out with them.”
Dr. Grossman had a career in information technology before coming to BSU. He brought with him his interests in globalization and technology and the nexus where these things meet. Early in his tenure at Bridgewater, he saw a need for increased study tours, particularly for global management students. The trip to Cuba was the tenth time he’d led a group of students overseas. Dr. Grossman has also worked on BSU’s behalf forging international partnerships, clearing the way for exchanges and other cooperative ventures. The past two years, he and Dr. Madhu Rao, professor of geography, explored the use of hydroelectric power in India, taking a handful of students with them.
Dr. Grossman says he loves to see the looks on his students’ faces when they encounter new worlds. It’s something he saw a lot of while in Cuba.
“It was truly transformative for some students,” he said. (Story by John Winters, G ’11, University News & Media; photo by Kindra Clineff)
