Plane Tickets!

We just received the first portion of our Fulbright stipend, which means we finally had the money to purchase our plane tickets to/from Minsk!  Jacque spent an enormous amount of time trying to find the cheapest tickets with the shortest travel time (also meeting the conditions of the Fly America Act) and after a little last minute drama (it seems like there is always something that goes wrong) we found a good deal and made the purchase this afternoon.  

The final price: just over 11.5K for the whole family, round trip!  Yikes!  We will be flying United until we get to Frankfurt, Germany, at which point we will fly Lufthansa to Minsk.  Travel time each way (including layovers) will be just over 18.5 hours, which sounds like a lot, but is actually much shorter than many of the itineraries Jacque was looking at (many were 30+ hours total travel time).  So way to go Jacque!

We officially leave the morning of Thursday April 19 and will return home on Thursday August 15.  On the way there we will be flying from Salt Lake City to Washington D.C., then to Frankfurt, Germany, then on to Minsk Belarus.  We come back through Chicago instead of D.C.

Of course we are concerned about how the kids will do on such a long trip (and this will be their first time on a plane), but lots of people have given us good travel tips and the kids do long car rides really well (like when we drive to visit grandparents in California and Missouri) so we are cautiously optimistic!  

We shall see how that part of our adventure goes!  But for now, at least we have the tickets to get there and back!

The School of Business and Management of Technology at Belarusian State University

  

OK.  Now that I have provided a brief overview of the Fulbright program and the country, I thought I would just provide a little background info on Belarusian State University and the School of Business and Management of Technology, where I will be teaching over the summer.  

Belarusian State University was founded in Minsk on October 30, 1921, and is the top university in the higher education system in Belarus and is located in the heart of downtown Minsk.  There are nearly 7500 employees (2500 of which are teaching/research faculty).  Enrollment is around 5,000 students (with students from more than 102 countries represented on campus) each year, including undergraduate, masters, and Ph.D. students. 

The School of Business and Management of Technology was established in 1996, with the MBA program coming online in 1999.  There are currently 13 different programs/majors offered in the business school.  

I will be teaching a human resource management course in the MBA program, in addition to helping out with curriculum and faculty development initiatives as the need arises.  The nice thing for me is that all MBA courses are taught in English, so I don't need to worry too much about the language issue (I have been repeatedly reassured that the currently 17 MBA students enrolled in my class have excellent English...  we shall see!).  I was told the same thing before my trip to China, only to find that there actually was quite a wide range in the language ability of the students (surprise, surprise...!).  I have my course all prepared and ready to go, but I am also ready to be flexible and change things last minute if that is what they need (and I suspect there is a pretty good chance that things will change).  And I am very excited to interact with the students, which was one of my favorite parts of my China trip last fall.  I also plan to conduct interviews with business faculty and local business leaders regarding the unique nature of doing business in Belarus (particularly pertaining to HR/employee-related issues). 

And though unrelated to BSU and the business school, here is another nice time lapse video clip of Belarus (so pretty I just couldn't resist!).

Overview of Belarus 

There is so much that can be said about Belarus that here I am going to try to just provide a brief overview of a few of the highlights.  Over time, I am sure I will add additional posts that get into more detail pertaining to the sociopolitical, economic, and cultural aspects of the country.

Belarus (literally means "White Russia") is a landlocked country made up of six regions (total size is slightly smaller than Kansas), with a total population of roughly 9.5 million (nearly 2 million residing in Minsk; nearly 70% of the countries population resides in urban areas).  The country's capital (Minsk) was mostly leveled during World War II and has since been completely rebuilt.  As a result, Minsk is a very modern city that is known for its beauty!

Part of the Soviet Union until its collapse, post-Soviet Belarus (The Republic of Belarus) is now officially a "presidential republic" led by Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994.  While both Belarusian and Russian are official state languages, Belarusian is mostly spoken by the older generation (currency is the Belarusian ruble).

Additionally, about 70% of the radiation from neighboring Ukraine's 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster entered Belarusian territory, and as of 2005 about a fifth of Belarusian land (principally farmland and forests in the southeastern provinces) continues to be affected by radiation fallout.

Extensive overviews of Belarusian history, geography, government, religion, economy, military, and other country elements are available at the following websites: U.S. State Department Overview, CIA World Factbook Overview, United Nations Belarus Profile, and the official Belarus Website.  Additionally, for a direct U.S./Belarus comparison on a variety of country-level indicators, see the NationMaster website.  Finally, for an in-depth look at various aspects of Belarusian culture and attitudes, see the World Values Survey online data analysis website. 

Below is a short video clip that provides a very beautiful glimpse at this once war-torn country and its capital city (where we will be lucky enough to live for close to 4 months this summer!). 

What is "Fulbright"?!

I have had many friends/family ask me this question, so I though I should start by providing a brief explanation.  

To quote from the "About Fulbright" page (http://fulbright.state.gov/about.html): "The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.  The Program was established in 1946 under legislation introduced by late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas and is sponsored by the United States Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA)....  Currently, the Fulbright Program operates in over 155 countries worldwide."

While there are many different categories for Fulbright grants, mine falls within the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, which sends American scholars to approximately 125 countries, where they lecture and/or conduct research in a wide variety of academic and professional fields.  My host institution in Minsk is Belarusian State University (School of Business and Management of Technology), where I will be teaching in the MBA program and conducting research/consulting with local and national businesses and civic groups on human resource development and performance management.  

In terms of the process for getting a Fulbright grant, the following describes it nicely (http://fulbright.state.gov/apply/selection): "Fulbright grantees are selected through an open and merit-based competition. This ensures that the most qualified applicants are fairly chosen in a way that contributes to the main goals of the program: to provide overseas experience to individuals... and to promote mutual understanding and benefit through contributions to both host and home communities... selection is a binational collaborative process that involves the input of partner agencies, U.S. Embassies, Fulbright Commissions and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (FSB).  In general, selection is made on the basis of academic and professional record, language preparation, feasibility of the project or course of study, personal qualifications and preference factors established by the FSB and the Fulbright Commissions."

Of course I have zero language qualifications related to Russian and Belarusian, but lucky for me all MBA courses at BSU are taught in English...  so I dodged that bullet!  And in terms of other qualifications, I think that my diverse/cross-disciplinary academic/research background (sometimes considered by other academics as an unnecessary hindrance) actually really helped me in the Fulbright selection process, particularly as my background specifically relates to the very unique sociopolitical, economic, and cultural context of post-Soviet Belarus.      

 
Below is a video about the Fulbright program (kind of long, but very interesting!). 


Fulbright Connects - Full from Fulbright Program on Vimeo.

An Introduction to Our Minsk Adventure!

Welcome to my new blog, which will chronicle my family's adventures this summer while in Minsk, Belarus!  We now leave in less than one month and are very excited/nervous about all that lays in store for us half way across the world.  While I have done some venturing off to the far reaches of the globe, this will be the first time we will all go together as a family, for an extended stay.  While we recognize that the cultural immersion will definitely be difficult at times, we are also excited for the challenge and the many rich learning opportunities we will undoubtedly have this summer!

In the coming weeks (before our actually departure), I plan to add posts explaining (1) what the Fulbright program is, (2) a brief history and overview of the contemporary sociopolitical, economic, and cultural context in Belarus, (3) my visiting appointment at Belarusian State University in the School of Business and Management of Technology, (4) how we got ourselves into this mess in the first place, and (5) what we have done to prepare and get to this point.  Once we arrive in Minsk and get settled in to our new temporary home, I plan to add posts on a regular basis so family and friends can share the experience with us!  (And your comments will be much appreciated as we looked to stay connected with loved ones while we are away...)

Feel free to follow the blog and stay tuned for much more to come!