Getting ready for a trip to London, UK

In the coming days, the anticipation of visiting the United Kingdom as part of the AFM 334 International Study Trip will finally be over as we land in London!

Throughout the term, our class of thirteen School of Accounting and Finance (SAF) students with the help of Owen, our teaching assistant, and Steve Balaban, our lecturer, have worked hard to prepare for this student-run trip. We have done everything from reaching out to professionals and arranging meetings, to booking housing, to planning meals, to creating our weekend itinerary exploring some of London’s most famous attractions. 

The International Study Trip is a unique co-curricular, credited course offered to upper-year SAF students (2B term and up) where students travel to a chosen destination to meet with business executives of multinational firms from various industries to learn about their operations. Students actively participate in discussions with business executives centered around a specific topic relevant to the region. This term, our topic is: Navigating the Post-Pandemic and Brexit Business Landscape.

Being a student-run trip, anything and everything related to the trip down to the nitty-gritty details are planned by us students. To make the task manageable, our class is split up into three different teams: the marketing and culture team, the corporate relations team, and the logistics team. 

• The marketing and culture team is made up of Kash, Emily, Nishika, and Puneet. We oversee the course’s marketing initiatives to show others what AFM 334 is all about, alongside planning the meals and the various fun attractions we will be doing in London (taking into consideration the class’s interests). Some exciting activities we have lined up include attending a Chelsea vs. Leicester City Premier League soccer game and an immersive dinner experience at The Murder Express!
• The corporate relations team is made up of Hufsah, Mahek, Grace, Sanovar and Garrett. Their main goal is to book meetings with different industry leaders and professionals for our trip that caters to students' interests. Some professionals we are looking forward to meeting include the senior principal customer success account manager at Microsoft and the senior vice president at Live Nation!
• Last but not least, the logistics team is made up of Pranavii, Joseph, Yuqi and Sairamya. Their main goal is to ensure that the trip runs smoothly and that we travel safely in London. In addition to that, they are also in charge of organizing accommodations and leading the class to all our destinations in London.

We are all very excited to be going on this trip and learning a ton. For many of us, this will be our first time travelling post-pandemic, which makes it all the more exciting and memorable. We look forward to experiencing this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and making lifelong memories with our classmates and the people we meet over the next couple of days of the SAF International Study Trip.

Follow our travels by checking out the SAF Instagram or TikTok page.