The group of students, faculty, staff and alumni representing the Online MBA program spent a week in Chile, exploring different areas such as the village of Pomaire, which is famous for its pottery. (Photo courtesy of Sierra Phipps)

Two years ago, the international business component of the Online MBA program at the University of Missouri–St. Louis brought students to Panama. Last year, the destination was Costa Rica. For the 2025 trip, the group traveled south of the equator to Santiago, Chile.

The excursion proved to be yet another unforgettable experience for the 31 people in the UMSL travel party – mostly Online MBA students, along with some faculty, staff and alumni.

“It was spring, so the weather was amazing,” said Francesca Ferrari, UMSL’s senior director of business student success. “We could still see the snow up in the mountain around Santiago, and it was very green. We explored. One day we went to explore the mountains. Another day we went to a vineyard. Another day we went to a little pueblo to see how they make pottery and then explored how to try to make our own pottery with clay. We got our hands dirty and had a lot of fun.”

Mixed in with all the sight-seeing activities and hands-on experiences was the opportunity to get an in-depth look at a local company to see the inner workings of how a company outside the United States operates. The students had researched the company before the trip, and part of their capstone class Strategy Formulation and Implementation taught by Cindy Goodwin-Sak was to learn more while in Chile, then produce a presentation on possible solutions to the problems the company faces.

That experience of meeting with representatives from the company, starting with a question-and-answer period, was just as eye-opening as viewing the snow-capped mountains and seeing a penguin playing in the Pacific Ocean on a day trip to the coast.

“I went into that meeting with the company having a full-on plan, a list of questions and everything,” said Marko Vukadinovic, a St. Louis native who is an estimating and pricing specialist at Boeing. “I started off with the first question out of the whole group, and when I heard an answer that was not what I expected, I just started flowing with more different questions. I just went off topic, away from the list of my questions that I had.”

Learning to shift away from preconceived notions quickly became a theme for the students.

“For me, it was not what I expected; I’m a very structured person, so I had my planner all ready to go and documents ready,” said Amy Benwell, who is a finance and accounting specialist at UMSL’s College of Optometry. “We role-played some questions right before we were going to meet them the first time, but I felt like the business environment down there is much more relaxed. They also succeed using an agile technique in all of their business dealings that I am not familiar with. I really embraced that, because we had our first initial structured meeting, but it was just open dialog back and forth, just bouncing ideas off each other.”

One way the representatives of the company got to know the UMSL contingent was by hosting a social event one evening, outside of the business facilities.

“I covered so much ground with them in three hours at a happy hour from 7 to 10 p.m. because the ideas were just so free-flowing, and we were so encouraged and welcome to ask very plain-language questions,” Benwell said. “It wasn’t stuffy. The folks we were working with were so genuine that I felt like we could accomplish a lot more than in a regular board meeting structure that I’m used to here in the States.”

The views in and around Santiago as memorable as the cultural interactions experienced by members of the UMSL traveling party. (Photo courtesy of Amy Benwell)

With so many potential opportunities to experience, everyone could find their own favorite moment. The group took a tour of a citrus farm, where they were able to try oranges and lemons directly off the trees, and some fresh avocado. They rode a funicular in the hilly coastal city of Valparaiso and walked the street market full of art vendors.

As Benwell described the experience, the group explored what felt like four different countries all available within a three-hour drive from Santiago.

“Part of the reason we liked Chile is we like to take the students to a place that they might not otherwise go on their own,” said Sierra Phipps, the program manager for the Online MBA and Accelerated Master’s programs. “I don’t think any of the people in our group had been before, so it was a great opportunity for them to experience kind of a different culture and beautiful place.”

One memory that stood out for everyone was the trip to the village of Pomaire.

“The pottery they do there, it dates back to Indigenous people in the area,” Phipps said. “There are certain things about the geography and the soil there that makes the proper clay set-up for them to use. The person who showed us how to make pottery gets the dirt from his neighbor’s yard, and the neighbor likes it because they can’t garden with it, so it’s like a mutual system in their village.”

For Phipps, seeing the penguin on a boat ride off the coast of Valparaiso was a definite highlight. For Benwell, who hadn’t experienced any sort of international travel, her most memorable moment involved a mixture of speed and heights she admitted she wouldn’t typically embrace at home.

“I ziplined over the Maipo River, which was a huge deal for me, because I’m normally the safety person in the group,” she said with a laugh. “Never in a million years would I have done something like that. But kind of going with that theme of pushing my personal boundaries and leaving the country and going so far away, I did so many new things.”

One of the elements that’s both challenging and rewarding about an international trip with students taking the Online MBA program is that nobody really knows each other. Classes include video sessions and message-board interactions, but that’s a far cry from being together for a week in a foreign country. That inspired a mix of anxiousness, anticipation and excitement.

“One of the big things for me was that I actually wanted to know who I’m going to be graduating with,” Vukadinovic said. “I wanted to build connections, and I can say that I’ve made lifelong friends. I’m not really an outgoing person. Especially if I don’t know you, I usually don’t open up. But as the week went along, it just felt like I’d known these people my whole life, so I was just talking to everyone. I was kind of surprised, but I was glad that I got out of my shell.”