Chicago Booth European Conference 2010: Exploring Challenges and Opportunities for EU/US Business

4 03 2010

European Conference 2010Chicago Booth European Business Group is organizing Chicago Booth’s first European Conference, scheduled for April 12, 2010 at Harper Centre in Chicago. The theme of the conference is “Exploring the Challenges and Opportunities for EU/US Business” and we are very excited to announce the attendance of Mr. José María Aznar López, former Prime Minister of Spain, as the keynote speaker.

The purpose of this conference is to strengthen the links between Europe and Booth at multiple levels. At the student level, this conference will increase the awareness of Europe in the Booth diverse student community. At the same time, since we are planning to invite professors, the European and non European faculty will have the opportunity to talk about Europe related issues. From the career perspective, it is our objective to reinforce the commitment of Booth to careers in Europe through this conference, and ideally establish new relationships with European companies present in the US that currently don’t recruit at Booth. Finally but not less importantly, we want to use the organization of this conference as a tool to reinforce the relationships between Booth European Alumni and the current students.


Comments : 4 Comments »
Tags: , , , , , ,
Categories : Chicago Booth MBA, Economics, English, Europe

Chicago Booth European Business Group

24 02 2010

Europe
The European Business Group is a 200+ member student group at Chicago Booth dedicated to promoting cultural and professional exchange with Europe. While our members come from diverse backgrounds, we are unified by a common cultural and professional interest in the countries of Europe.

EBG’s goals for the 2010-2011 school year include:

  • Fostering a sense of European community within Chicago Booth, through social and cultural events;
  • Supporting students in the pursuit of internships and full-time job opportunities in Europe, through activities such as resume reviews, mock interviews, Eurotrek and London Banking Days;
  • Providing guidance to prospective students from Europe; and
  • Engaging corporate recruiters and alumni groups from throughout Europe.

The European Business Group is organizing the Chicago Booth European Conference 2010 on April 12th 2010, in which the former president of Spain, Mr. José María Aznar, will be the keynote speaker.


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Categories : America, Chicago Booth MBA, Economics, English, Europe, Politics

Do Europeans really know it all about culture in America?

26 10 2009
Jackson Pollock in Action

Jackson Pollock in Action

Many Europeans think they already know it all about America. Many see America as a country with a very short history and a Hollywood-McDonalds approach to culture, where there is not much culture to learn.

In fact, I used to think I knew much more about America than I indeed did. When I took part in the Orientation Week organized by Indiana University for La Caixa scholars, Professor Bruce L. Jaffe, prepared a quite interesting quiz about culture in America. Topics included: education system, geography, politics, employment, demographics, American units of mesurement, American sports …

I got a quit humble mark. But I am learnt quick – I hope. It is not a matter of flashing my mind with American customs. It is a matter of understanding culture in America and picking up what is good in it.


Comments : 5 Comments »
Tags: , , , , , ,
Categories : America, English, Europe

Vote for Europe’s President

30 09 2009
How do I call if I want to call to Europe? (Peace Nobel Prize and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger)

"Who do I call if I want to call to Europe?" (Henry Kissinger, Nobel Peace Prize & former US Secretary of State)

I was in Barcelona during the last week of the campaign for the European Elections and I was surprised to realized that nobody was talking about Europe, but about local issues. Even the parties were not talking about Europe.

The problem of the European Union is that it lacks leadership. Therefore people are not interested in it and look back to their local politic. The rotating Presidency of the EU Council every six months does not assure leadership.

The Treaty of Lisbon (2007) has taken actions on this issue with the by creating the position of “President of EU” in its article 15. This is a great innovation. However, there are no specific plans to let Europeans vote directly for the EU President. This is the main drawback of this position: the EU president will be tributary of the national governments which elected him/her at the Council of Europe.

“The President of the USA is elected by US citizens (although indirectly) therefore he can claim legitimacy to express his views worldwide as those of the country. [However,] the President of the EU will never be free to express his views fully, as his legitimacy is granted by the Council, which can choose to withdraw his mandate at any given time [...]“. [Bibliography: President of the United States vs. President of the European Union]

I believe if Europeans could vote directly for one person to be the President of the European Union, would be much more engaged in the European Elections. I believe in a future in which Europeans from all nationalities will vote for another European, most probably from another nationality, to be the President of Europe.

Forget about national stereotypes! Forget about national rivalries! Forget about language barriers! I know this sounds futuristic but we are the Erasmus Generation! We are the first generation in Europe that can achieve this!

See my post about the Erasmus Generation


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Categories : English, Europe

The Erasmus Generation

31 05 2009

Mushroom cloud The other day, a French friend of mine told me: “Nobody who made an Erasmus will ever make a war”

This is a brig truth. The Erasmus program is a European student exchange program established 1987, which allows european students to study one year in a foreign country in Europe. For me, this has been on of the biggest success of the European Union in terms of education.

The Erasmus program is the guarantee that there will never again be any  war in Europe. Those who made the last big war in Europe (1939-45) used to say that the easiest way to convince people to go on war was to tell them that another country was manacing us. This was also the argument used by the Bush administration to attack Irak. Will this argument convince people who have lived abroad in that or another country, who have made friends abroad, who have got in love abroad, who have shared a flat abroad with other international students, who have felt accepted and loved in a foreign country? Of course not.

If you want to know more about the Erasmus experience, I recommend you to watch this French film: l’auberge espagnol

Image: The mushroom cloud of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945. Taken from wikipedia.


Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: , ,
Categories : English, Europe, Politics


Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.