Acropolis ’22
Welcome to Greece 22 School of Business Study Abroad!!!
Below, our students will post their exciting experiences and what we have learned/done here!
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Study Abroad in Greece Summer ’22
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Hi my name is Mikaela Dougherty and I am an international business major at CofC with a minor in Global logistics and transportation and a minor in marketing. I decided to attend ACG in Athens for my study abroad. So far this trip has been awesome. My favorite experience from this trip has been meeting new friends and getting to explore multiple islands with them. We took the ferry to aegina island last week and got to walk around the town and swim at their beach. It was so beautiful and so fun.
Hi, my name is Cannon Yarborough. I’m studying Marketing at College of Charleston. One thing that brought me out of my comfort zone on this trip was flying and traveling alone. Especially in a foreign country, I was worried that I would go to the wrong place or lose my luggage. While none of those things happened it was still out of my comfort zone. One thing I learned about Firestone and their ethical issues was that their negligence cost over 200 of their customers lives.
Hi my name is Delaney Lambert! I am a rising senior at CofC studying international business with a minor in global logistics and transportation. On this trip so far one thing that has brought me out of my comfort zone was traveling alone to Europe and once I arrived here figuring out the different modes of transportation. The company I researched in class today was Exxon and I learned a lot I did not know about their unethical business practices. Exxon knew for years that their unethical business practices were altering the climate and chose to deceive the public by downplaying the issues they are creating. They have been sued multiple times due to their effects on the climate, making them less competitive with other forms of energy such as solar or wind energy. One of my favorite parts on this trip has been experiencing the culture of Greece and seeing all the stray cats on the streets.
Hi I am Louis and one thing that I did that was outside my comfort zone was ride on the metro by myself. I learned that my company AIG was caught up in the 2008 financial crisis with risky credit default swaps.
One way in which I have been pushed outside of my comfort zone is when we altered travel plans on the fly. I usually have everything planned out days or weeks in advance, but during this trip I have had to change plans on the day of or even in the moment itself.
In class today, my partner and I looked into the controversy over the Firestone tire recall during the late 1990s and 2000s. I learned a lot about how unethical decisions by a company can lead to more than just PR problems. Firestone destroyed their long-term deal with Ford motors by shifting the blame for accidents caused by tire failures onto the vehicles. Their refusal to respond to complaints from the international community and the state of Arizona lead to a delayed response and multiple government investigations resulting in fines.
Something that took me out of my comfort zone since being here was having to go to the doctors because I had bronchitis. It was definitely a very different and overwhelming experience. The way their doctors work here are very different than the way our doctors work in America.
Today my partner and I researched Johnson and Johnson and unethical decisions they have made. They knew about the issues with their baby products and did not disclose issues that they had. This resulted in a ton of law suites as the FDA recalled their baby products that caused cancer.
Hello! My name is Lila Henderson and I am from Brunswick, Maine. Visiting Greece has been lots of fun so far but I have also learned a lot. Some things have brought me out of my comfort zone, such as talking to Greek-speaking taxi drivers and figuring out how to get around Athens. I have used metros before but reading the locations in Greek was challenging, so it took a little time to get used to. Today in class we learned about ethical and unethical decision-making in businesses. We all looked at specific companies and how they have been viewed as unethical in the past. My partner and I’s company was Exxon, one of the world’s largest fossil fuel producers. They have been accused of lying to investors about their effects on climate change and downplaying the science of climate change. They had researched their impact on the environment and chose to deceive the public about the “lack” of danger in order to make their company seem more appealing to invest in. This was viewed as an unethical decision made by the company.
One thing that pushed me out of my comfort zone on this trip has been using the public transportation system by myself. My Mom and sisters are spending time in downtown Athens and I used the Metro and bus to get down there instead of taking the easy way and getting a cab. I was nervous but I ended up doing fine and so glad I pushed myself.
A brief fact about a company that I learned today was that Walmart was exposed for underpaying their employees as well as working overtime without compensation. Walmart has since fixed this unethical decision and workers are appropriately compensated.
In today’s reading, we learned about Eco-innovation and how it functions throughout Greece. Eco-innovation is defined by the Observatory as, “ any innovation that reduces the use of natural resources and decreases the release of harmful substances across the whole life-cycle.” Greece continues to rank on the lower side of the EU but is beginning to increase its performance in eco-innovation. These improvements have been made through integration technologies such as energy-efficient smart meters, solar energy, and photovoltaics, just to name a few.
Today we toured the island of Sounion which is home to the ruins of The Temple of Poseidon. It was built around the same time as the Parthenon, in the Golden Age. It was built at the highest point of the island, Attica. It was amazing to swim in the beautiful clear water while looking at the 5th-century BC temple.
Post 1: Two things that got me out of my comfort zone this trip was talking to locals that I met and taking the public transportation. Talking to locals can seem intimidating at first, especially not knowing if they speak English and not wanting to be disrespectful either. I haven’t had one bad experience though, and everyone I met has been super friendly and outgoing. Taking public transportation was interesting to figure out as a group especially with the signs being in Greek and remembering the correct train station name and bus stop number. Today, I learned about Walmart’s ethical scandal that I had no prior knowledge about. Walmart has been accused of violating a variety of workers rights, from underpaying foreign workers and denying over time pay. There has even been malpractice lawsuits within the company.
Post 2: The article “Industrial symbiosis in Greece” was most interesting to me, as I enjoyed the way the paper was structured and showed how companies created multilevel eco-industrial networks to combat the creation of waste at the source. Industrial Symbiosis is the relationship between 2 or more firms that exchange their waste, whether that be materials, energy, or waste. To fully understand the factors that play a role, they are divided into economic, environment (physical), and social factors. This way we are able to see what is causing the most damage. Todays tour was about an hour outside of Athens on the coast in Sounio. We got to visit Poseidons temple, which is an Ancient Greek temple dedicated to the Greek god of Poseidon. My favorite part of this tour was being able to see the water behind the temple. It reminded me a lot of the acropolis, as well.
BLOG 1: 5/31/22
In the weeks since I have arrived in Greece, many things have put me outside of my comfort zone. The one that stands out the most is having to use so many modes of transportation to get around town and between islands. Not knowing the language has complicated this, as well as not usually enjoying being in planes, ferries, buses, or public transportation to begin with.
Today I looked at ethical dilemmas that Walmart has faced in recent years. The one that stood out most to me was a class action lawsuit filed against the company for not providing cashiers who requested one a seat while they were working. Instead of purchasing 100,000 seats for about $1 from any one of their suppliers, Walmart underwent a 9 year lawsuit and had to pay over $65 million by the end. This certainly was not the only issue Walmart has encountered, but it goes to show how not resolving issues at an early step can snowball into a much bigger and damaging problem.
BLOG 2: 5/31/22
I was most interested in the article entitled “Industrial symbiosis in Greece: A study of spatial allocation patterns.” I found the idea of industrial symbiosis as a whole intriguing and it was fascinating to see the application of the research in areas that we have explored. I did not know that Greece was at the lower end of sustainability measures in the European Union. From what I have seen thus far, I would have attributed their sustainability to be fairly adequate compared to some of the measures in the United States. Looking at industrial symbiosis through the spatial scale allowed a deeper understanding of how companies in Greece can expand industrial symbiosis and where some limiting factors are. The use of economic, environmental, and social factors affecting the spatial allocation follows closely with the concepts we have discussed in class.
In addition, the tour today was a great excursion. Although we have seen two other similar looking archaeological sites, each one was unique in their own way which made the tours worthwhile. With the Temple of Poseidon today, I was interested particularly in the location of the site. The location of each temple aligns with the purpose of it. I also thought the anecdote about the island adjacent to the temple being a place for exile was very disheartening but I am glad to know more about the history.
Post #1 – 5/31/2022
Something I have experience that has been out of my comfort zone this trip was definitely taking public transportation. I had never taken a public bus or metro un the U.S. so doing it for the first time and in another country was defiantly a little frighting at first. I am glad we have been taking the public transportation options here and I am starting to get more comfortable using them. Also, I think it is a great way to save money because they are much cheaper than getting taxis.
A fact I learned about Nike was that they have been dealing with acquisitions of sweat shops since the 1990s. Nike is a popular company who we reserached has sweat shops in developing countries like India and Indonesia where they pay their workers below minimum wage. These factories are in terrible conditions and they often violate fire hazard rules. They have tried to come out with lists of each factories location to prove their conditions are better but as a multi million dollar company, they should be doing way more for their employees.
There are many things that have made me come out of my comfort zone since arriving in Athens. The metro and bus were the things to take me the most out of my comfort zone, as I have never used public transportation until coming here. The company I decided to do further research on in class was Uber. The company has been accused of permitting rampant workplace harassment, mishandling medical records and concealing data breaches. These breaches go deep into the company as it was one of their intelligence members who was the one transferring the confidential documents to his personal email account.
One thing that brought me out of my comfort zone on this trip was that when I arrived in Greece, my luggage did not arrive with me. The first person I talked to about it spoke no English. The next person I talked to was able to help but I still did not receive my luggage for another 3 days. I had to borrow clothes from people I had just met since I had no time to go shopping.
The company that I researched yesterday was uber. I learned that they were involved in many confidentiality issues. An employee was accused of transferring information to his personal computer. That same employee accused Uber of wiretapping his phone. This information led to other information about an employee who recorded a meeting and released it to the media. In response, Uber denounced its intelligence team.
(unsure where to post pictures)
May 31, 2022.
Of our readings today, the paper on Industrial Symbiosis stood out to me as the most interesting. When imagining industrial symbiosis I think of perfectly in-tune factories, each creating exactly what the others need to function. Obviously, the reality presented in this article is much more nuanced. We often think of minimizing the waste we create, instead this article made me consider how we might maximize certain kinds of waste to limit resource extraction from the natural environment. The largest issue I see with industrial symbiosis is the need for central planning and/or agreements between corporations spanning different industries. There could be inefficiencies that develop because one market behaves differently from another and the symbiotic relationship may break down.
Today we toured the south of the peninsula of Attica. We spent most of our time at the ruins of the temple of Poseidon and the surrounding landscape. I appreciated that it was less crowded and we had more time to ourselves compared to the tour of the Acropolis. Overall, it was relaxing and beautiful.
Today we went to Poseidon Temple. This was my favorite temple we have visited because it was surrounded by water and beautiful islands. We swam and ate lunch down on a beach that looked up to the temple. We got octopus and fish and that was quite the experience. It was a beautiful afternoon on the coast.
In the article eco-innovation in Greece it talks about how Greece is affected by a lot of environmental changes because of their surroundings of the ocean. There are hundreds of islands in Greece and their food comes from the ocean. The climate changes and pollution hurt their environment and they need to be very aware of how they are treating the earth. However, even though they need to be careful many groundwater irrigation
systems operate illegally and thus, they are not recorded. They have average air quality and the way they over use their systems is bad for the environment. Something that is interesting Greece is most successful countries worldwide in the use of solar thermal energy
The tour of Sounio was very informative and opened my eyes to another part of Athens. I enjoyed the tour of Poseidon’s Temple and it was fascinating to see the historical artifacts surrounding it. The entire city was beautiful and it was very unique compared to the other parts of Athens I have previously visited.
The reading on Industrial Symbiosis is very intriguing and informative. I had never heard of the term “Industrial Symbiosis” before and now I know that it refers to the relationship between two firms and how they exchange their waste products. I also learned that waste is separated into 7 categories based on its physical characteristics and were the waste originated from.
Post 2
I found it interesting that climate change has a greater impact on Greece because of its island nature. Greece benefits from solar, wind, and tidal energy. This was the first time I have heard of tidal energy and it comes from the ocean. I was also surprised to see Greece ranks lower with a score of 75 than the average EU which has a score that averages at 100 for their energy use.
Yesterday, we toured the Temple of Poseidon. The temple served as a place where the people hoped to appease the god of the sea. Only part is remaining because the rest was destroyed by the Persians during the war in 480 B.C.
Post 2 – 5/31/2022
The readings from today were very interesting, especially the Eco-innovation in Greece. I did not know how important it was for Greeks to use renewable energies and energy efficient methods. It is really encouraging to see their efforts to improve their eco innovation performance. I have noticed many Greeks take the metro places and I feel like taking public transportation is just one way they a trying to reduce their global footprint. Additionally, I thought the section about energy efficiency in Greece was interesting. The way the have been developing technologies for solar energy and photovoltaic is huge for them. Overall, I really liked reading this article because it opened my eyes to the environment of Greece and what they are trying to do as country.
I really enjoyed our tour of Temple of Poseidon today. I thought it was beautiful how it was right on the water. It reminded me a little bit of the Parthenon. It was so cool how you could see it from the beach at lunch and when we went swimming in the ocean. I learned that it was built in the 5th century and is the typical Greek style. Overall, I really enjoyed our tour and will always remember how beautiful the views were.