Brennan Veys
Brennan Veys is a senior at the ILR School. He graduated from Naperville Central High School, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois.
“I spent my semester in Dublin, Ireland at the University College of Dublin. I would recommend this program to anyone. It was one of the most enjoyable experiences that I have had at Cornell.
“I had a choice to make. I could go to an English-speaking country or a Spanish-speaking country. I considered Spain, England and Ireland. I was concerned about the language barrier in Spain and having to take courses in Industrial and Labor Relations in Spanish. I have a conversational fluency in Spanish but not the technical background, so it then came down to either England or Ireland. I knew a lot of people were going to England and I wanted to go off the beaten track—there were only two other Cornell students in Dublin and it also helped that I had family in Ireland, as well.
“I had classes from Monday night through Thursday afternoon. I took Managing Business Ethics, Managing Diversity and Gender Relations, Cross Cultural Management and Negotiations and Conflict Resolution. In addition, as a part of the program, the business school students had to take a course in Irish history and Culture, which was designed to expand our knowledge of Ireland.
“It was a very organized program. They had a number of enrichment activities. We went on a traditional Irish music pub crawl in Dublin. We took trips to historical sites around Ireland, including a number of smaller towns. We went to see traditional Irish sports—hurling and Gaelic football.
“I knew that I wanted to go abroad. My parents had traveled abroad but they didn’t have that opportunity while they were in school. I had not been to Europe before and they thought it would be a good opportunity for me. I thought it would be a lot of fun. I knew that going abroad was something I wanted to do. Once I settled on Ireland as a location, I then started to look at the schools. I found that University College was an accredited business school which had courses that I could transfer. And it was also close to the biggest city in Ireland—which was a new experience for me because I had never lived in a big city.
“Once I selected the school I wanted to go to, the process of applying was not complicated. It wasn’t any more difficult than applying to college after high school; just some logistics to work out.
“I gained a great deal of perspective. It was extremely interesting to be in Europe and to participate in their educational system—it is not the same as ours. However, now they are moving toward a more participatory system where there is more student—teacher dialogue. Traditionally, it has been much more lecture oriented with 100% of your grade depending on your exam. In some of my classes, 70% of my grade was based on my exam. That’s a bit scary.
“Studying labor relations there was also different. It is more of a collaborative enterprise than it is here. Sometimes in the U.S., labor relations are adversarial. They can be adversarial there but for the most part, they collaborate better than we do. You find different perspectives on how things work. You find that the American system is not the only way of doing things.
“The traveling was great. I visited nine countries while I was there. It was a spectacular experience. The cities that you visit don’t feel like American cities because they have been there for hundreds and hundreds of years. The sense of history was incredible. I made tons of friends—in classes through the program and while I was traveling and staying in hostels. In every aspect, it was incredible.
“I would love to work abroad at some point in my career—an international assignment is almost a must. I have been asking that question of every employer—what international opportunities do you offer? It doesn’t necessarily have to be Ireland but somewhere abroad.
“I’ve been mostly focused in human resources and also in general business strategy; a management or HR position in Europe would be a great experience. In this new global workplace, it would be very valuable for my career.
“I would recommend this program to anyone. It was one of the most enjoyable experiences that I have had at Cornell. It might even top my Cornell experience just because it was so different. You’re not stuck in one place for a long time. You are there for five months and you are traveling quite a bit. It’s something new and different every day of the week and that pace of life is incredible and it is something you have to experience once. Just trying it was amazing.”
