This year Ann Huang, 2010 Canada Study Tour chair, was selected as one of twenty-five MBA students from across the US to participate in the Canadian Leadership Orientation Program, sponsored by the Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa. With Dan Abele, Head of Research and Academic Relations for the Canadian Embassy, Washington, DC.
What happens when three Mexicans, twenty-one Americans, and fifteen Canadians meet with various experts for a week-long program on Canada? A surprising realization dawns: despite our varied cultural, political, and economic differences, we are all part of a greater North American entity. With our countries’ intertwined destinies, we must learn to collaborate, cooperate, and communicate to ensure the success of our continent.
In the beautiful cities of Ottawa and Montréal, the Canadian Leadership Orientation Program (CLOP) united thirty-nine MBA students from across North America to hear about the world from a different perspective. From discussions on transportation to tri-country panels on integration and an overview of the global recession, there was much that we could learn and debate.Throughout the week, we were presented with the opportunity to talk not only to corporate executives, state officials, and a variety of professors, but also with students just like us. CLOP’s gathering of students from University of Ottawa, HEC Montréal, IPADE from Mexico City, and schools all across the US has started a cross-continental network that will continue far into the future, spreading global perspectives and helping to build a more educated North America.
The CLOP for North American MBA students is sponsored by the Association of Canadian Studies in the US (ACSUS), the Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa, in cooperation with Foreign Affairs Canada, HEC Montréal, and the Canadian Embassy in Washington DC.
The annual Canada Study Tour is supported, in part, by funding from the Center’s Program Enhancement Grant, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada.