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Economics and business major John Zembron ’04 (Ridgefield, Conn.) experienced a different perspective on the war with Iraq for three weeks in May and June during a Lafayette interim course in France.
In the class, Paris, Provence, and the Midi: Cathedrals, Kings, and Pilgrims, ten students studied French medieval art and architecture, and how they related to society and technology, in and around Avignon, Toulouse, and Paris. Led by Leonard Van Gulick, Matthew Baird Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Ellouise Van Gulick, visiting part-time instructor of mechanical engineering, both of whom are fluent in French, the students also studied French history from pre-Roman Gaul through the nineteenth century.
Zembron heard “a more cut and dried, fact-oriented presentation of the situation,” he told The News-Times of Danbury, Conn. “In the U.S., we were getting more of our government’s spin.” The CNN International and BBC broadcasts he saw were seemingly “less slanted,” according to Zembron, while France itself obviously disagreed with U.S. policy in Iraq.
Fortunately, the group was never treated harshly, he says.
Zembron did find resentment toward America for its influence on French culture, which was evidenced by fast food, the proliferation of Nike shoes, and the fascination with Michael Jackson.
Zembron has conducted research on the relationship between a firm’s size and its managers’ incentive pay with Christopher Ruebeck, assistant professor of economics and business.
Last January, he learned the art of sales and marketing during a four-day externship with Michael Weisburger ’82, president of Weisburger Insurance in White Plains, N.Y.
A member of Chi Phi fraternity, he assisted with this year’s Delta Upsilon carnival, which raised $1,500 for the Boys and Girls Club of Easton April 27 through festivities on the Quad that included a balloon launch.