Aspira College of management and design implemented the project “Scientific and professional exchange of experiences in social tourism and entrepreneurship between the USA and Croatia” in cooperation with American Embassy. The goal of the project was to bring experts from the USA who will work together with Aspira on the internationalization of higher education institutions, curriculum development, hold guest lectures and workshops, both for students and the general public, hold consultations with our professors and staff for the exchange of experiences, as well as later cooperation on joint research and publications.

 

Our first visit was from Dr. Jerome Anthony Hays from Indiana University – Kelley School of Business. Mr. Hays is a doctor of law, innovator, investor, initiator of numerous successful business projects and legislative reforms. He gave a lecture to our students on the topic: “Entrepreneurial ecosystem development in emerging economies”, which turned out to be extremely interesting and everything was accompanied by numerous questions from students  side. Mr. Hays also held a lecture for the general public, which was attended by a large number of participants from the hotel industry and entrepreneurship. The topic of the lecture was: “The rise of entrepreneurship globally and what it means for emerging economies”. Mr. Hays came back again in June, more precisely from 01 – 07 June 2018. In the days preceding, we held several meetings, defined some projects on which we could work in the future (Entrepreneurship Center in Aspira, study of Global Entrepreneurship, signing of an agreement on cooperation between our two institutions, Mr. Gerry Hays as a guest lecturer on some courses, etc.).

 

From  June 10. – 16. 2018, as part of the project, we also hosted an American scientist, Mrs. Sharr Prohaska from the NYU School of Professional Studies. Mrs. Prohaska is a distinguished University professor with over 30 years of experience in academic education. It deals with the study of cultural heritage, sustainable planning and development, environmental protection, special forms of tourism and the development of creative forms of tourism. For many years, she was the head of Tourism studies, and she is currently employed as a tenured professor at the NYU Jonathan M. Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management. With Mrs. We recently worked on the competencies and learning outcomes for the Master’s degree in tourism that we plan to start, defined the guidelines we use in defining the course syllabus, and worked on the development of the “Sustainable development in International Tourism” curriculum. On June 14, 2018, she held a guest lecture on “Creative Tourism Community Development – Trends in Tourism” for our students. She presented two projects in the field of creative tourism designed in collaboration with students of the New York Tisch Center. The first related to the development of rural tourism on the Catskill Mountains near New York, and the second project brought the story of the life of American natives and Dutch newcomers in the Hudson River Valley.

 

PROOF:

Minutes from the international cooperation meeting on June 4, 5 and 11, 2018.