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FRONT PAGE CAMPUS & COMMUNITY ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT FEATURES SPORTS OPINION BACK PAGE CONTACT US ABOUT USJungle Business: Fifteen JSC Students
to Travel to the Amazon
Assistant Professor of Business and Economics Henrique Cezar and Chairman of the Business and Economics Department Jim Black will be leading a group of 15 JSC students to Brazil between May 18 and June 2 of this year. The trip is being offered as a three-credit course designed for business and HTM (Hospitality and Tourism Management) students and has personal relevance to Cezar, who was born and raised in the south of the country.
“When I made the proposal for this course,” said Cezar, “I thought Brazil would be a very interesting place for our HTM and Business students to visit because it would be a reality completely different from what they have seen.”
Cezar pointed out that this trip will be different from the recent business trips to places like Ireland, France, and England because the cultural differences in those places are not as great as they are in South America. He noted the importance of students having a broad cultural perspective that encompasses more than just European culture. But, when it comes to language barriers, the students will have an advantage: one of the students attending the trip, Amanda Queiroz, is, like Cezar, Brazilian and speaks the native language, Portuguese.
Cezar also spoke of creating an exchange program between students in Brazil and students from JSC. For instance, when the group arrives in the city of San Paulo there will be a group of 15 Brazilian students ready to welcome them and help them to acclimate.
From San Paulo, the group will then make its way to the city of Manaus, located in the heart of the Amazon jungle. Since Manaus, a city of two million, is not accessible by car, the group will be taking a plane there. From there on they will be doing most of their traveling by boat on the numerous rivers that exist in the Amazon region.
JSC Assistant Prof. Henrique Cezar visiting a native Brazilian tribe in the Amazon region.photo courtesy of Henrique Cezar
The trip is being partly funded by the Business and Economics Department, and the remainder is up to the students to provide. To minimize the cost of accommodations, the group has rented a house in Manaus, though it will be staying in several hotels on the trip. One hotel was of particular interest to Cezar because of its location in the depths of the jungle where, he said, the students will have a chance to interact with the regional wildlife.
“The idea is to show how business is done in that part of the world,” said Cezar, as well as to show the students what kind of business and tourism possibilities there are in the region. For example, the group has planned to visit a factory that processes the açai berry, a small, deep-purple berry that grows in Brazil that has become popularly known as a “youth tonic” due to its high antioxidant concentration.
For anyone interested in learning more about this trip, or wishing to check out photos from past trips, Cezar encourages them to join the newly created “Johnson State Business and Economics Department” group on the online networking program Facebook.