College of Saint Benedict senior Liv Henson is pursuing a degree in art education as she prepares for a future career as an art teacher.
But since she was a student at Stillwater High School, Henson has also run her own small business creating and selling upcycled jewelry.
“I’ll go to antique stores or garage sales and buy big bags of jewelry, then I take it home, clean it up, take it apart and build it back into a new creation,” she said. “It’s something I’ve been passionate about for a long time.”
That background made her a natural fit for the Entrepreneur Scholars (E-Scholars) program at CSB and SJU, which provides students from any major the opportunity to develop and implement a business venture of their own.
Part of that experience means gaining an increased global perspective. That’s why every January, that year’s E-Scholar cohort embarks on an international trip. In advance, the students are tasked with setting up meetings with business owners or other relevant individuals in the country to which they are about to travel.
Past destinations have included China, Bosnia and Herzegovina and – for the past three years – Vietnam.
The most recent trip took place earlier this month. Henson and her fellow cohort members departed on Jan. 3 and spent two weeks in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang before returning to Minnesota on Jan. 17.
It was during that time Henson had the opportunity to meet with a pair of business owners who work with and market art from local Vietnamese artists.
“It was so interesting to hear their criteria for picking artists, the split they utilize and all the other aspects that go into doing what they do,” she said.
“It showed me that what I do with jewelry making could be universal. It doesn’t just have to be a U.S.-based niche.”
E-scholar Joe Wedl, an SJU senior from Edina who is majoring in global business leadership, used a family connection at Cargill to set up a visit the entire group made to an animal nutrition feed mill an hour-and-a-half outside of Ho Chi Mihn City.
“It was a huge facility producing thousands and thousands of bags a day,” said Paul Marsnik, a professor of global business leadership at CSB and SJU and the academic director of the E-Scholars program.
“But it was almost entirely automated. There were around 25 people total working there. I’d never seen anything of that scale, with so few actual people involved. It was really fascinating to see.”
Marsnik said setting up and making such visits builds self-confidence in students, which is what makes these international trips so valuable.
“The No. 1 criteria we look for when we choose these destinations is if it is a place that will get students out of their comfort zones,” he said. “The No. 1 mission is that they build confidence in themselves. That they see they can reach out to someone on the other side of the world, set up a meeting, then come away from it having learned something.”
Wedl said that goal was certainly accomplished in Vietnam.
“Paul makes sure we know this is a business trip first and foremost,” he said. “The culture and history of the place we’re visiting, that we learn beforehand and while we’re there, is of the utmost importance.”
Henson echoed those sentiments.
“This trip really expanded my frame of reference and opened my mind to different avenues that may be open to me,” she said. “It showed me I don’t have to limit my thinking to places and people I’m familiar with. I can think bigger than that.”
