International Exchange Programs at MBA: Exchange to The Raffles Institute in Singapore

This summer, I was fortunate enough to go on exchange to the Raffles Institution in Singapore with Johnathan Barringer and Jordan Pugh. I’ll be honest – I had to look at a map to see exactly where Singapore is located. The country – which is actually a city state (and the only city state in the world that is an island) – is at the very tip end of the Malay peninsula. The flight to Singapore took nearly 30 hours (including time in the Tokyo airport), and although the layovers in Minneapolis and Tokyo were cool, the jetlag the first two days was nearly overwhelming. Upon returning to our dorm room at roughly 4 PM on both of the first two afternoons, we decided to take a nap before dinner at 7. Both nights, I woke up at 11 PM and had to tell Johnathan and Jordan that we missed dinner.

The three of us all shared a dorm room on the Raffles campus. During the first week, we attended classes with students who were probably the equivalent of freshman at MBA. The teachers were very nice and so gracious to us as “outside” students. Every teacher was very kind and went out of his or her way to involve us in their lessons. I particularly liked the math and chemistry teachers. We also had one lesson in Chinese, which frankly didn’t stick very well with any of us! Interestingly, at Raffles, the students stay in the same room almost all day, and the teachers rotate.

The Raffles students have math six times a week. During the week we were there, one of the math classes was cancelled because the entire student body was taking a health/sex education class. Our math teacher was not happy about this and suggested that we didn’t need to take this class because math was “sexy” enough on its own. He was really funny and made the class interesting for his students.

Our primary liaison at Raffles was Miss Ho. She was really nice and went with us on many of our outside excursions. She took us to the Night Safari (where we saw a “mousedeer,” the coolest animal ever) to the Singapore Flyer (a massive ferris wheel), and various restaurants and tourist sights. It was Miss Ho who picked us up at the airport (at 1:30 in the morning), and she told us early on not to bother checking the weather because it never changes. She said it would be hot all day and there’s a good chance of rain at some point every day. She was right!

We were especially fortunate to connect with Mr. Wayne Hicks, an MBA and Vanderbilt alumnus, who now lives in Singapore. He took Johnathan, Jordan and me to his “cricket” club, which is the Singapore version of a country club. The food was wonderful, and he and Mrs. Hicks were very gracious hosts.

In our down time, we visited Orchard Row, which is a section of town with approximately 30 high-end shopping areas, and other tourist spots. We really enjoyed riding on the Singapore Flyer and going to the top floor of the Marina Bay Resort.

This exchange was a tremendous opportunity, and I am sincerely grateful to Mrs. Warner, the Warner Exchange program, Mr. Gioia and MBA for allowing me to represent MBA at Raffles. Finally, I would also like to thank all the Raffles teachers and administrators for facilitating our exchange, as well as our three student buddies, Sam, Ryan, and Alex. Having the chance to interact with students who are literally half-way around the world was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I would encourage any MBA student to consider applying for the program.

Jordan, Mr. Hicks, Mrs. Hicks, myself, and Johnathan

The Marina Bay Sands Resort (Left) and Singapore Flyer (Center)

With the "Merlion," the mascot of Singapore. The mythical creature has the head of a Lion (from Singapore, which means "The Lion City") and the body of a fish (because of the importance of the sea).