Student Staff Highlight: Scandinavia
November 29, 2018
Over the summer, one of our student staff members, Rilee Peebles, had the opportunity to go abroad for the first time in her life. She travelled to Amsterdam and Rotterdam in The Netherlands, as well as Stockholm, Sweden. This opportunity was available to her because of Fisher College of Business’ Global Sustainability Lab. She travelled with fifteen other students and networked with businesses ranging from start-ups to large corporations. There were also many opportunities to become immersed in these cities and their culture, whether a canal tour through Amsterdam or an all-day pass to sixty Stockholm museums. What was initially an intimidating opportunity became one of the most life changing experiences of her life.
Rilee would have never found this education abroad program if not for her Second-Year Transformational Program (STEP) advisor, Ty Shepfer. Rilee had no idea what she wanted to do with her STEP funding, but once she was told about a chance to go abroad and study sustainability in business, she was determined to have that experience. Being an Environment, Economy, Development & Sustainability (EEDS) major, meeting with businesses of all varieties was a chance to look forward into her future career opportunities.
Being in Scandinavia was a wake-up call for Rilee. Her biggest take-away from this experience was that in order to make the world more sustainable, we must ingrain sustainability into our culture. Because of the culture of Scandinavian countries, there were many opportunities for sustainable businesses to thrive and innovate. She visited some of America's largest finance firms KPMG’s sustainable finance department in KPMG Rotterdam. It was exciting to see that such a lucrative sustainability market exists, especially with the hope that sustainability in business will one day become as standard business practice worldwide.