Champlain College Business Students Eligible for China Internship Opportunity in Shanghai

Freeman Family Foundation Awards Stiller School of Business $100k Grant

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Champlain College President David Finney using chopsticks left-handed with David Guixi, Dean of Shanghai Institute for Foreign Trade

BURLINGTON, VT (12/11/2012)(readMedia)-- Champlain College has received a $100,000 grant from the Freeman Family Foundation to underwrite providing internships in Shanghai, China for 16 students from the Robert P. Stiller School of Business.

This is an opportunity for business students in various fields of study to gain both international and professional experience, according to David Strubler, dean of the Stiller Business School.

Champlain College President David F. Finney; Associate Provost and Senior International Officer James Cross; Vermont Secretary of Commerce Lawrence Miller; and Assistant Director of Study Abroad Noah Goldblatt returned last month from Shanghai after meeting with the host university, The Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade. They were there to network with Shanghai businesses seeking interns, as well as promoting Champlain College and the state of Vermont. Through the program, students can choose to take advantage of just an internship, or they can study abroad at the University for a semester. Tuition is not covered by the grant.

The grant provides a stipend towards normal expenses related towards a semester internship in China. The grant covers room and board at The Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade, an internship placement fee, $1,500 towards airfare to China, and $750 towards regional travel (reimbursable). Other expenses are out of pocket for students.

Students can opt to study abroad in the spring, followed by a summer internship; study abroad in the spring with an embedded internship; take a summer internship for or not-for course credit; or fall study abroad semester with an embedded internship.

Senior International Business major, Ethan Edholm '13 will be the first Champlain students in the program in the spring of 2013. Students applying for the summer 2013 internship have until March 1 to apply. Contact Baker at shbaker@champlain.edu for more information.

"In today's (and tomorrow's) global business environment, such exposure and experience will be invaluable and repeatedly serve the students well throughout their careers," said Assistant Dean of Business Scott Baker. "This experience will increase students' worldview, cultural awareness, and business experience, and help distinguish them as graduates with a demonstrated aptitude and ability to "stand out" among other college graduates."

Members of the selection committee include Strubler, Baker, Director of the International Business Program Tom Myers, and Business Division Career Services Advisor Pat Boera.

About the Freeman Foundation:

The Freeman Foundation was established in 1994 through the bequest and in memory of the businessman and benefactor Mansfield Freeman, a co-founder of the international insurance and financial conglomerate American International Group, Inc., better known as AIG. This private and philanthropic foundation, based in Stowe, Vermont, with offices in New York City, is dedicated to augmenting international understanding between the United States and the nations of East Asia. It accomplishes this principally through the distribution of grants in the educational sector. The foundation, which grants about $50 million every year to various organizations and institutions, is committed to increasing, strengthening, and popularizing the teaching of Asia in university classrooms. It has created the Undergraduate Asian Studies Funding Initiative to provide grants to numerous American colleges to strengthen and expand their Asian studies programs. The dual aims of the initiative are to increase access to Asian studies courses and to increase the number of students in the United States studying about Asia.

About Champlain College:

Since 1878, Champlain College has provided career-focused education to students from its hilltop campus in Burlington, Vt. Champlain's distinctive educational approach embodies the notion that true learning only occurs when information and experience come together to create knowledge. Champlain offers traditional undergraduate and online undergraduate courses, along with online certificate and degree programs and eight master's degree programs. Champlain offers study abroad programs at its campuses in Montreal, Quebec and Dublin, Ireland. Champlain College will be included in the Princeton Review's "best colleges" guidebook, "The Best 377 Colleges: 2013 Edition." Champlain was named a "Top-Up-and-Coming School" by U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best Colleges" and was ranked in the top tier of 2013 Regional Colleges in the North. For more information, visit www.champlain.edu.