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International Study Tour to Korea Brings MBA to Life
Students in the Foster School’s Technology Management MBA discover commonalities at home and abroad in how businesses start up then continue to adapt and grow
Written by: Mai Ling Slaughter, contributing writer, Foster School of Business
After nearly 18 months immersed in business fundamentals and leadership training, students enrolled in the University of Washington Foster School of Business Technology Management MBA have the opportunity to apply their knowledge globally through the program’s International Study Tour.
During the spring break before graduation, classmates become bunkmates and friendships are forged for life as students live and breathe their MBA.
“Whether it was the lunch hustle or a traffic jam, time never seemed to sit still,” Christopher Garcia (TMMBA 2025), Product Marketing Manager at Arctic Wolf, said about his class’s International Study Tour to South Korea. “We were always being presented with information and experiences that added value to our MBA.”
Cultural integration kicks off the international study tour
Garcia was joined by more than half his Technology Management MBA class at the March 2025 International Study Tour that traveled from Seoul to Busan, visiting a diverse range of companies as small as startups and as big as Samsung Electronics.
The first stop at the U.S. Embassy Seoul “really set the tone for the entire experience,” Garcia said. “They helped us understand how leaders were making decisions that the country is facing, initiatives they’re working on, and what we should look for when we talked to businesses.
“The Embassy helped us understand the lay of the land so that we felt at home and safe, and how to integrate into the culture.”
Team research prepares students for company visits
That cultural knowledge was complemented by presentations from student teams before each company visit, preparing tour participants to ask informed questions and engage in knowledgeable conversations about each business.
“Everyone became an expert on the company they were researching,” Garcia said. “We would get insider information for each business by dividing and conquering, equipping us to show up prepared with due diligence and care.”
Each company also put equal care into their presentation to the Technology Management MBA group.
“These company visits are a curated experience, with a tour guide and a lecture designed specifically for business students,” said Emmaline Cotter (TMMBA 2025), who as a Product Manager at PACCAR was particularly interested in the company visit at Hyundai Motor Ulsan Plant.
“I work at a truck manufacturing company,” she said, “so it was really interesting to get on a bus and drive around their entire auto manufacturing plant. Getting to physically see the facility helped us comprehend how much effort it takes for such a giant company to continuously improve and stay successful for 50 years.”
Startup success looks the same across borders
Cotter also appreciated how the company visits helped bring to life some of the MBA lessons recently learned in the classroom.
“The presentations we heard at the company visits were very directly connected to what we’ve been studying,” she said. “At SparkLabs Korea, we discovered a lot of commonalities with starting a business — like what makes a good pitch, what does success look like.”
Luc Kim-Hall (TMMBA 2025), a Senior Software Engineer at Netflix, also appreciated how the company visits helped him find common ground around the globe.
“The culture and way they do business might be different in another country,” he said, “and we often have a tendency to act like different is a barrier. But we’re all just people, we don’t have to make it so complicated. The International Study Tour made me more comfortable with that concept.”
From company visits to cultural experiences
Company visits were chosen to complement the Technology Management MBA curriculum, a comprehensive business management program with a focus on technology and innovation. Regardless of the size or the industry of the company — which also included JNPMEDI, Korea Exchange, and the Korean Film Council — students experienced cultural similarities that also helped deepen their global business knowledge.
“One thing that was pretty evident from each of the companies and cultural experiences was the national pride for the development of Korea in the last few decades,” Kim-Hall said.
Garcia also was struck by the passion of each of their hosts. “It was this contagious energy that helped us integrate and ask real questions,” he said. “They could recognize what was important to us and were willing to dive deep into subjects that only business students would ask.”
Intermingled among the company visits were cultural excursions that strengthened the experience, including Gyeongbokgung Palace, Bukchon Hanok Village and Busan City tours that featured Gamcheon Culture Village, Jagalchi Market, Gukje Market and more.
“There’s a huge cultural enrichment we get out of this whole package of experiences,” Kim-Hall said, “the bonding with classmates, being in another country isolated from our life, being immersed in a different culture.”
Friendships for life
After traveling via bullet train to Busan for the second half of the tour, “We were all tired and exhausted,” Garcia said. “But we were also bonded — our guards we down, we felt united and that we could do anything.”
What followed were late nights eating local food, walking on the beach, dancing, and simply creating new and strengthening existing friendships.
“It’s really hard as adults to spend time with each other when trying to schedule around everyone’s responsibilities — work, school, families,” Cotter said. “We all went there knowing we were never going to do this again, so we made sure to make the most of it.”
Learn more about the Foster’s Technology Management MBA program
