Valparaíso continued

Now that we are safely home and I have easier access to the internet (thanks, Jim, for documenting the journey back!), I wanted to post more pictures and highlights from our last full day in Chile that I wasn't able to include originally.

On our way from Santiago to Valparaíso, we got to see an agricultural region with many vineyards.

A view of the Valparaíso port, and Will, Lissa, Kyle, Annie, Olesya, and Laura waiting their turn for the boat tour.

Jon, Gabe, Kyle, Carl, and Will take an empanada break while waiting for the boat.

Kyle, Michael, Lissa, and Jon model their alpaca wool souvenirs.

Jim, Megan, Ellen, and Betsy disembarking from the boat that Ultramar had take us around the port.

The Ascensor Artillería, which we took up to the Paseo 21 de Mayo to take pictures and enjoy the gorgeous views of the city.

A view from the ascensor.

Olesya, Laura, and I in front of the breathtaking view along the Paseo 21 de Mayo.

The group taking a break before heading back down the ascensor.

La Sebastiana, Pablo Neruda's house.

An inspiring vista from the windows of La Sebastiana.

Before catching the bus back to Santiago, a group of us had dinner at Cafe Turri, a restaurant that had--yes, you guessed it--beautiful views.

The food was delicious and beautifully presented, like this sopa de mariscos (seafood soup) that I ordered.

On the way out of town, we were amazed by the sun setting over the ocean. This picture doesn't even begin to do it justice, but unfortunately, I was on the wrong side of the bus to get a great shot.

Last day of Santiago visits

It is really hard to believe how our time in Santiago has flown by. Today was our last day of scheduled visits here. Tomorrow we're taking a day trip to Valparaíso on the coast and then Saturday we will have some free time for sightseeing back in Santiago before heading to the airport.

Today we spent the morning and part of the afternoon at the Universidad de Chile, a public university founded in 1842 that is one of the top-ranked schools in the country. Nineteen Chilean presidents, along with the Nobel prize-winning authors Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda, attended the Universidad de Chile. Specifically, we visited their business school, the Facultad de Economía y Negocios (FEN). We started with a tour led by Meredith Denton, Head of International Programs, during which we saw various facilities, such as the library and sports fields. During our visit we learned that all of the campuses of Universidad de Chile combined have approximately 25,000 undergraduate students and 5,000 graduate students, while FEN has 2000 undergraduates and 500 graduate students.


We were welcomed by Professor Erich Spencer, Director of International Affairs, who had arranged an activity for our students to work on with his students from an international business class. The students were divided into groups, each with a mix of our students and Chilean students, and they were given questions about international business and emerging markets to work on. The groups left the classroom and spread out around the building to work on their activity and get to know each other. Michael stayed to facilitate the activity with Meredith, while the rest of the trip facilitators met with Professor Spencer, Professor Javier Núñez, the program Director, and Dr. Manuel Agosin, Dean of FEN, to discuss further developing partnerships between FEN and Kelley.




In addition to working on their international business activity, the student groups discussed a wide variety of topics. Some of the Chilean students were interested in how much it costs to attend a university in the U.S. Our students wanted to hear about their personal experiences with the 2010 earthquake. While the Chilean students seemed proud of their country, some were surprised that business students would choose to take a trip to Chile and didn't seem aware of how positive the reputation of Chile's economic climate and potential for growth has become. Another topic that the students discussed was the job search process. From what Katelyn learned from her group, the internship and job search processes and the support they receive from their school is similar to the experience of Kelley students. She learned that Deloitte is one of the companies that recruits at FEN, which was particularly interesting to her because after graduation she'll be working for Deloitte in Chicago in human capital consulting. By the way, ¡feliz cumpleaños, Katelyn!


Overall, our students found spending time with the Chilean students to be a very enjoyable experience and a valuable learning opportunity. Several said that the allotted discussion time went by quickly and they wish they had more time to spend with the FEN students. Kyle expressed that he learned a lot about Chilean culture that was not covered in our business visits through talking to Chileans around his age for just a short time. Jennifer felt that it was a very positive experience and the FEN students seemed excited to meet Americans. She even said she enjoyed the environment so much that she felt like she could go back every day! She also explained that our students have been in an audience role throughout the week, so it was nice to have an opportunity to share information about their culture and their studies with Chileans during this visit. She found the more balanced ratio of Chileans to Americans, in comparison to our other visits, to be helpful for learning and cultural exchange. Andrew pointed out that the fact that he and some of the other Kelley students speak Spanish helped them to facilitate the discussion and to bond more with the Chilean students. Megan felt that having to work together on an activity really brought the students together. She said that at the beginning of the session everyone seemed somewhat uncomfortable and our students and the FEN students were hesitant to intermingle, but after the discussion activity, they were much more comfortable with each other.

After lunch and a small group reflection session, we visited Enersis, a private utility company serving Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Perú. Nicolás Donoso and María Teresa Fuentealba met with us and gave us an overview of the company. We learned that they work in both generation and distribution of electricity and that they aim to provide energy at competitive prices while being environmentally conscious. They specialize in hydroelectric power, so the weather and the environment are important factors for their business.


On the way home, a few of us decided to check out the Biblioteca Nacional (National Library), which is right across the street from our hotel. The architecture was very impressive and there were exhibits with some interesting books and other types of publications on display.



Stay tuned for tomorrow's updates from the Valparaíso trip. We're excited to get to see another part of Chile and we hope to have interesting stories and beautiful pictures of the coast to share.

A full day

Today was our busiest day yet, with three business visits on the agenda. Our first visit was to Recycla, a company that recycles electronics using environmentally friendly methods. Traveling to their recycling facility allowed us to see a totally different side of the city of Santiago--an area filled with industrial parks. After a brief tour of the recycling center, we had coffee with Fernando Nilo, CEO and founder of Recycla. He explained Recycla’s triple bottom line model, in which economic value is balanced with a commitment to positive environmental and social impact. The social mission of Recycla includes employment of individuals who have experienced imprisonment, which facilitates their reintegration into society. The students enjoyed learning about Recycla, as well as discussing their own business ideas and career goals with Fernando. Upon leaving, we presented him with a Kelley t-shirt and an IU hat, which, as you can see below, he couldn’t wait to put on!



The second visit of the day was to General Electric. We ate lunch and listened to a very informative presentation that began with global trends currently affecting GE and moved on to deal more specifically with GE's operations in Latin America and then the Chilean context in particular. Our hosts, Sergio Blanco, Alejandro L. Bottan, and Luis Felipe Carrillo (pictured below with the group), answered questions from the students on a wide variety of topics, including the impact of the 2010 earthquake in Chile and the recent tsunami in Japan on the energy industry.

Our final visit was to the Santiago Bolsa de Comercio (Stock Exchange), which was founded in 1893. Macarena Henriquez and Daniela Araneda Reveco provided us with an overview of what the Stock Exchange is and how it works and showed us a demonstration of the technology it employs. We concluded with a visit to the trading room floor. We learned that most brokers now choose to work from other locations, so the trading room was much quieter than most of us originally expected.

During our small group reflection later in the afternoon, Carl, Gabe, Kyle, and Lissa shared their impressions of the business visits so far. They are enjoying the fact that we have been meeting with such a broad range of types of businesses. Some of the students were struck by the pride and confidence that Chileans have in their economic success and their potential for continuing development and feel that this has been a common thread throughout our trip. The students also shared that they are grateful for the very unique opportunities that this trip is affording them, noting that generally on a visit of this length, you don’t get to have extended interactions with the locals or learn so much about the society and the economy. Additionally, the students have had positive experiences with the santiaguinos, finding them friendly and helpful, which makes them feel more welcomed into the culture and less like tourists looking in from the outside.

We ended our busy itinerary with a group dinner at Restaurant Peyo, where we were joined by Penelope Knuth, an IU alumna who lives in Chile, and her son. We enjoyed getting to know them and we’re grateful to Penelope for suggesting such a nice restaurant that we probably wouldn’t have found on our own. The food was plentiful and very tasty. Below the pictures of our group and our guests, you can see two of the delicious dishes we enjoyed, the unbelievably tender calamares and the colorful salad prominently featuring palta
(the local word for avocado—a new addition to our Spanish vocabulary for most of us). All in all, it was a busy but wonderful day!

Getting down to business

We were lucky to be welcomed with such beautiful weather when we arrived on Sunday, but today was cloudy with a few periods of very light rain. Still, we had a very enjoyable day as we started on the primary focus of our trip--conducting business visits and making connections between how Chilean businesses operate and what the students have learned in the Emerging Economies class, as well as during their time at Kelley overall.

To get to our first stop, Instituto Vertical, our group of twenty-two had to split up and take six taxis to another part of the city about twenty minutes away. Needless to say, this was no small feat and our arrival at Instituto Vertical was a bit staggered. During the visit we learned about the various dimensions of Instituto Vertical, but we mainly focused on their educational programs that employ experiential learning methods to teach leadership and other professional skills in the context of outdoor activities such as mountain climbing.

While most of us cannot directly relate to the impressive climbs that the staff has done all around the world, the connections that the General Manager, Aldo Boitano de Moras (pictured above with our group), made between adventurous activities like mountain climbing and the challenges of international travel struck a chord with us. When you force yourself to venture outside of your comfort zone, there is extraordinary potential for learning, not only about the new environment that you're in, but also about yourself and your potential. He also stressed the importance of reflecting on what you are learning, which we'll be doing regularly throughout our trip.

After lunch, we walked to Start-Up Chile, a government-funded initiative that provides grants and support to globally-minded entrepreneurs to bring them to Chile to start their enterprises, with the overall goal of making Chile into the entrepreneurship and innovation center of Latin America. Diego Philippi, who is in charge of Networks, answered various questions from the students, explaining the application and selection process, the benefits that the selected applicants receive, and how the program differs from the venture capital route.

We also heard from Corey Wride (on the far left, next to Diego), an entrepreneur from the United States currently living in Chile. We enjoyed learning about his professional experiences as an entrepreneur, but it was also really interesting to hear about his experiences as an American living in Chile and what it was like for him and his family to adjust to this new culture. He had very positive experiences to share, and while we have only been here two days, we are beginning to understand why Chile is such a great place to be!

First day in Santiago

Early this morning we finally arrived in Santiago. As you can see from this picture, Kyle and Gabe were up at sunrise and ready to go see some sights.

Speaking of sights, we saw some great ones today, first on our city tour and then later exploring on our own. As we left the airport, we were impressed by the strikingly beautiful backdrop that the Andes mountains provide for the city of Santiago.

Some of the sights we explored today include the Santiago Cathedral, La Moneda (the presidential palace), and Cerro Santa Lucía and Cerro San Cristóbal, two hilltop parks with vistas preciosas.

We are all quite tired after a day of traveling followed by a day of sightseeing and are looking forward to a good night's sleep. We're excited to start our business visits tomorrow morning!

Pre-Trip Dinner

Last night the Chile group met for dinner after class in order to get to know each other better in preparation for our trip. While we weren't able to go to a South American restaurant, we still enjoyed una cena deliciosa at El Norteño, where we could practice our Spanish pronunciation while ordering.

We're all really excited about the trip and can't believe this week has finally arrived. We will be departing Saturday and arriving in Santiago on Sunday morning. Stay tuned for more updates!