Comm 474 students brave the Amazon during McIntire's first-ever trip to South America during spring break.

McIntire Students Study Finance and a Fragile Ecosystem

A first-ever visit to South America is the latest innovation in the McIntire School’s International Finance and Tax Planning course (Comm 474). Sixteen finance and accounting students traveled to Brazil during spring break with Professors Mark White, David LaRue, and Andy Ruppel. Studying multinational firms in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the group also flew to Manaus for a three-day boat cruise on the Amazon River.

“We wanted students to get a close-up view of threats to our planetary ecosystems as well as practical knowledge of how business is conducted,” says White, who has written about the impact of environmental issues on financial decision making.

Katherine Martini (McIntire ’02) and Blair White (McIntire ’03) expected everything from mosquitoes attacking to anacondas dropping from trees. “There was just enough danger to make it exciting,” says Blair. “For example, fishing for piranhas and catching caimans [crocodiles] at night.”

“The first night, one of our guides caught a caiman, and we were all taking pictures,” says Katherine. “One person even held it a few moments. Later, back on the boat, we were stargazing and were excited to see the many constellations of the southern sky that we don’t see at home. There were so many little moments like these that made the whole adventure a unique experience that we will all remember.”

Students completed on-Grounds academic requirements during the spring term for the course that builds on McIntire’s third-year curriculum, composed of finance, accounting, marketing, and quantitative methods. Expanding the course overseas provides almost daily lectures from top management businesspeople illustrating their dealings with international finance and accounting.

“We learn about exchange rates in class, and it’s interesting,” says Blair. “But then you go out and meet people who work with them every day as they sell steel across borders. It makes you realize these things aren’t just in books.”

A second group of students from Comm 474 left in late May 2002 for a three-week venture to Prague, Vienna, Zurich, Milan, Paris, London, and Dublin.

The students’ travel and study abroad have been generously sponsored by Ernst & Young for several years running. “We are extremely grateful to the Ernst & Young Foundation for making possible this experience of a lifetime,” says White. “Alumni, friends, and colleagues at Ernst & Young contribute financial, technical, and logistical support, and the Ernst & Young Foundation makes this exceptional program possible.”