International markets club travels abroad

The Awareness of International Markets club wants to enable its members to travel across the world. But expenses and limited space have forced the group to set its sights closer to home. The 22 members of AIM recently returned from two weeks in India. The trip was the culmination of year-long preparation that included research projects by the participants and a lecture series by some leading experts in the international business market. The goal of the trip -- and the overarching theme of the group -- is to "promote global awareness on campus? in Wharton and the rest of Penn," according to AIM Trip Chairperson Dhara Mehta, a Wharton senior. The 5-year-old group has made an overseas trip annually, traveling to such destinations as Japan, Germany and Latin America. The limited space -- about 20 students -- and the $1200-$1500 cost of the overseas trips have been obstacles to the group's expansion, according to Wharton junior Tatjana Hauss, AIM's chairperson for multinational affairs. AIM is now 80 members strong after doubling its membership this year. In previous years, members who did not go on the trip did not feel like full members of the group, Hauss said. But this year, AIM has begun to plan trips to New York City and Washington, D.C. to visit organizations that do business internationally, like Merrill Lynch and the World Bank. The cost of these day trips only includes transportation, approximately $20 roundtrip. Despite the group's new domestic trips, AIM still maintains an international focus. Members who want to go on international trips must first go through an interview process. They must also attend seven hour-and-a-half lectures and complete a research project. All of the lectures are open to the University community. "Everyone got to see first-hand some of the ideas? we had laid down before we went on the trip," Wharton and Engineering junior Arun Gupta said. "And that helped everyone get a good idea of what India really is." Wharton and Engineering senior Jennifer Shih said the trip was "the best thing I've done at Penn in a long time." "I learned about a country I would never have gotten a chance to go to," she said. "Overall, [it was] a great learning experience." The international trips focus on visits to corporations and factories. The excursions are not all work, though. An annual tradition of pillow fighting between old and new members is interspersed between shopping and sightseeing trips. This year's group visited Agra and the Taj Mahal. Recently, AIM has been trying to attract more members, especially from outside the Wharton School, Mehta said. To that end, AIM has sponsored programs featuring speakers like American Express Director of Non-Resident Indian Services R. Krishnan and Lehman Brothers Managing Director for Emerging Markets Sreedhar Menon.