Some classes happen in a lecture hall. These ones happened on coffee farms, in weaving workshops, and at a dinner table with no plates. This video packs two USF undergraduate immersions into about five minutes: Cali, Colombia (2020) and the Philippines (2025).
The Philippines
Students kicked things off at Ateneo de Manila University, where the Ateneo Family Business Development Center showed them how family businesses run on the other side of the Pacific. From there it was company visits to BEVI and HABI Lifestyle, where local artisans taught them to weave and make phone charms. (Results may vary.) The students tried heirloom pastry-making and took part in a boodle fight: a traditional Filipino feast served straight on banana leaves, eaten with your hands, with zero forks involved. Somewhere in between, they squeezed in the National Museum of Anthropology and the historic streets of Manila.
Colombia
In Cali, students toured a coffee farm and a potato chip factory (both were very popular), sat in on business presentations, and found out that drum circles and traditional dance are harder than they look. They also hit the city’s street art, tried fresh sugarcane juice, raced go-karts, and caught the view from the Cristo Rey monument overlooking the city.
The takeaway
You can read about how family businesses work in different cultures, or you can go see it, eat it, dance it, and weave it yourself. These students did the second one.
