Having made a positive impression on Asia – Japan and Korea, to be specific – the Darla Moore Executive Education program turned back to the West.
Or technically, from our local perspective, toward the east – to Germany.
In late March, Associate Dean Mark Cecchini and teammate Michael Galbreth from the University of Tennessee crossed a different ocean to present our Business Analytics course to U.S. Army personnel and civilian employees at an American military post, U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden.
Mark has been teaching the same class to the Army – and to civilians as well – here in Columbia for years. ExecEd first took the class international in 2023, teaching it at:
The second of those two was a bigger operation than the first. That was the case in Wiesbaden as well. With 49 participating, the student body was split, to make the group dynamics work better. Mark handled one class while Galbreth taught the other.
Something that was different – more Americans. While the civilian workforce in Asia had been mostly recruited locally, there were only “two or three” Germans in the program. The team had managed fine in Japan and Korea, but the communication process was just simpler this time. “It definitely felt a lot different,” said Mark. “I wasn’t as worried about losing people.”
Another thing increased the sense of familiarity: Cody Zilhaver, who was ExecEd’s director of Military Engagement and helped set up the initial trip to Japan, now works with a different program nearby, and was on hand for a reunion.
The venue was different: the classes were held in… a bowling alley. Or at least in the same building with the base bowling alley. You opened a door, and there were the lanes and the crashing pins. “But it totally worked,” said Mark.
That alley wasn’t the only local amenity available to our team. After work hours, there was greater freedom to roam about than on previous trips. That was due in large part to the fact that in Germany people drive on “the normal side” of the road – which made the visitors more comfortable about renting a car and driving beyond the gate in it.
They tried the local beers and drove on the Autobahn – although not in that order. They also enjoyed the food, and Mark confesses to having gained about five pounds. When asked what he enjoyed the most, his answer was surprising. It was a local sushi restaurant.
But it’s not as surprising when you consider where he’d been recently. Where will ExecEd go next? Mark isn’t sure. It could be Italy. Or a return to Germany, to present a longer course in the fall.
Of course, you don’t need a passport to take this course. Keep your eye on this webpage to learn when it’s scheduled again right here at Darla Moore Business School.
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