Scott M. Smith, James Passey Professor of Marketing and director of the Brigham Young University Institute of Marketing at the Marriott School of Management, has been selected as a 2006-2007 Fulbright Scholar to Moldova.
The Fulbright Scholar program is sponsoring Smith to develop a marketing and entrepreneurship curriculum in the small, former Soviet-block country.
“I’m ready to go and help out in whatever ways I can—academic or humanitarian,” Smith says.
Smith is one of more than 40,000 U.S. educators who have been given a grant by the United States Congress to teach abroad since the inception of the Fulbright program in 1946.
Smith learned Russian at BYU and has traveled and taught extensively throughout Russia though an exchange program he forged with Moscow State University. This experience differs however, as Fulbright assignments and arrangements in Moldova are made through the U.S. Embassy, not BYU or the hosting university.
“It’s a unique opportunity,” Smith says. “I’m familiar with Russia, but Moldova is another story. It’s a small country that is rich in history and tradition, but it is struggling to gain position within the world economy.”
Working with faculty, students and business people in Moldova, Smith, who has considerable entrepreneurial experience, hopes he and those he works with can benefit the people there. “There’s a lot we can learn from each other,” he says. “Like most of life’s experiences, we will make from this opportunity what we put into it.”
He jokes that he is brushing up on his rusty Russian and learning survival Romanian. He and his wife, Karen, are sure it will be an adventure.
“It’s going to be a busy time for us but we’re excited to get there and get started,” he said.
The Marriott School is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. The school has nationally recognized programs in accounting, business management, entrepreneurship, public management, information systems and organizational behavior.
