Grace Shea
Academic & Professional Portfolio
B.A. French and International Business
Minor in Spanish Studies
Clemson University 2024
Documentation of Coursework
As a Language and International Business major, the curriculum is mainly composed of language and business classes, focusing on language, general business, and cultural proficiency. Below, you will find descriptions of the majority of the relevant courses taken during my college career, as well as specific assignments attached that demonstrate my proficiency in specific subjects of French, Spanish, Business, and Cultural proficiency.
Description & Examples of Coursework
French Language
FR 3050- Intermediate French Conversation & Composition I: In this intermediate level French course, there was a specific emphasis placed on spoken and written fluency in French. This was achieved through weekly presentations, summaries of news broadcasts, essay and conversational prompts.
FR 4160- French for International Business II: As a continuation of FR 3160, this course continues to explore French business, but instead from the perspective of the rest of the Francophone world. Special focus was put on Francophone Africa and those countries' economic growth and potential as well as Quebec, and various French-speaking islands. GDP, natural resources, common industries, and future opportunities for every country were analyzed in depth.
Fourth Year French II (A) & French Conversation: These general language classes taken while abroad covered a wide variety of French language topics. Since I was placed at the B2 level, instead of studying specific grammar concepts, overall fluency was emphasized by writing practice essays, giving presentations, holding conversations, and practicing comprehension with different French accents. A special attribute of this class is that the other students were all international, therefore French was the only common language, and was the only means of communication amongst classmates. The goal of this course was to get students to the B2+/C1- level by the end of the semester.
French Proficiency
FR 3160- French for International Business I
FR 4160- French for International Business II
This course was focused on studying aspects of business in France, such as the process of company creation and how to format French business documents. The document below is a final research essay researching a francophone country and creating a hypothetical business there. Of which I chose to create a vintage clothing store in Switzlerland.
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French Culture & Literature
This course was a continuation of FR 3160, instead focusing on the rest of the Francophone world (Africa, Canada, etc.) The document below is an essay analyzing the growth of an African couture house throughout the continent.
Seminar in French Language: This course, taken while abroad in Lyon, was a lecture in French, covering major themes in French culture. Main topics covered included the French education system, French political system, the European Union, immigration policies in France, and the International Organization of Francophonie.
Understanding the French Bande Dessinee: In this course, taken while abroad in Lyon, the class explored the importance of Bande Dessinee (comics) in Franco-Belge culture, the evolution of bande dessinee, and the wide variety of themes they may cover. The course, conducted completely in French, dove into specific topics such as political cartoons in France, women BD writers, film adaptations, and classic Bande Dessinees (Asterix et Obelix, Tintin, Lukey Luke, etc.) We took multiple field trips to meet with Bande Dessinee writers, as well as explore the city's specialized BD bookstores.
FR 3000- Survey of French Lit: Through classic works of French literature, as well as works relevant to modern issues, this course analyzed symbols and themes among each writing through essays and class discussions. Works interpreted include Les Miserables, experts from Jean Jacques Rousseau, and a novel covering the Rwandan genocide.
HON 2090- French Discussion Group: This honors course was a weekly roundtable discussion in French focusing on various random topics regarding France and French culture. Some examples of discussion topics include, French idioms, Loire Valley castles, French couture fashion brands, French philosophers, French use in the English language, and many more.
Cultural Literacy
The French Bande Dessinee
In this course, taken while abroad, we explored themes surrounding French cartoons and comics as well as the works themselves. The work linked below was the final essay completed for the class analyzing the comic novel Catharsis in-depth, exploring themes regarding trauma healing after the Charlie Hebdo attacks of 2015.
FR 4160- French for International Business II
This course was focused on analyzing and discussing important excerpts and novels of French literature. The website linked below is a final project focused on exploring the hierarchy of social classes throughout history through artwork, and the literature analyzed throughout the course.
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Business
MKT 3010- Principles of Marketing: This course is an entry level marketing course focused on building a general knowledge base to continue the study of marketing. Throughout the semester, the course mainly took a deep dive into the marketing mix, specifically studying the importance of product, price, place, and promotion when launching a new campaign.
MKT 3020- Consumer Behavior: This course was focused mainly on the psychology of consumers, and how understanding human thought is critical in being successful in the marketing field. Topics such as personality types, market segmentation, and the human needs pyramid were explored in depth in terms of their relationship to advertising a product.
MKT 3030- Marketing and Society: This course takes a modern perspective on marketing by exploring how marketing and society intersect; how marketing affects society and vice versa. For example: is marketing the reason for a more consumerist society or has a more consumerist society spurred a plethora of new marketing campaigns? This class takes a particular focus to the issue of sustainability as a core focus of the societal-corporate relationship.
MKT 4230- Promotional Strategy: This class is mainly focused on a semester-long group project that involves choosing a struggling company, and repositioning their marketing strategy to boost sales. This study is done with the intention of understanding the specific steps necessary to create and implement a promotional strategy. For my group, we are repositioning JELL-O into a brand for Gen Z by introducing pre-packaged JELL-O shots as a new product.
MKT 4270- International Marketing: In this course, the goal was to learn various aspects of human nature that unconsciously control our purchasing behavior. For example, evolutionary features, mating methods, personality types, cultural differences etc. Throughout the semester, groups were assigned to different regions and countries to analyze specific cultural phenomena present in those locations. My group specifically was assigned to South America, one such analysis example being the subsidization of plastic surgery by the Brazilian government. This was by far the most fascinating and personally rewarding class I have ever taken, teaching an approach to business that I had never considered prior.
ECON 2110- Principles of Microeconomics: Microeconomics was a course focused on the relationship between supply and demand, specifically in the context of a production possibility curve. Factors such as substitutes, complements, inferior goods, and consumer income were taken into consideration when manipulating the supply and demand curves.
ECON 2120- Principles of Macroeconomics: Macroeconomics is a course that focuses on large-scale, global economic trends. This course covers topics such as a country’s GDP, supply of labor, inflation, and unemployment to create a comprehensive view of a company’s economy.
ECON 3060- Managerial Economics: This course takes an approach to economics using a managers perspective of choosing the best economic decision for a firm. This is done by analyzing investment options, calculating their costs and future payoffs to decide which options will ultimately provide the most profit.
ECON 3100- International Economics: This course is the culmination of macro and micro economics by exploring the relationship between quantity and demand, but on an international scale, taking into account world trade, comparative advantage, and opportunity costs. We use different international economic theories of trade, to calculate the gains from trade and the changes in the Production Possibilities Curve.
MGT 2010- Principles of Management: This entry-level management course that explored in-depth the 5 main functions of management: planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling. This class also covered the business management structures most commonly used in successful firms, whether that be top-down or bottom-up management systems.
MGT 4230- International Business Management: This course explored concepts of international business management by analyzing case studies of various companies that have expanded internationally, including what they did well and could have improved and also explored various international trade agreements that govern such expansions. We ended the semester by choosing a domestic company, and creating an international expansion plan for them; I had chosen a luxury consignment retailer and hypothesized their expansion into France.
MATH 1020- Business Calculus I & MATH 2070- Business Calculus II: In both business calculus courses, concepts related to calculus, specifically in graphing, derivatives, and limits were taught and applied to possible real-world business scenarios.
ACCT 2010- Honors Managerial Accounting Concepts: This course was an accounting class focused on calculating internal operations of a company such as revenues, production inputs, and outputs. All calculations are done with the intention of tracking the organization's efficiency in production and working towards reaching financial goals. Since this was an honors section class, an extra case study project was completed at the end of semester, creating an entire financial plan, including excel sheets, to give advice on a fictitious companies future expansion.
ENGL 3040- Business Writing: In this course, we students were taught the proper format and language necessary to use for professional business documents such as press releases, cover letters, emails, and grants. This course culminated in a two month long group project where each group created a 20 page grant proposal for a fictional non-profit to hold a fundraiser.
Business Proficiency
ACCT 2020: Managerial Accounting
In this honors managerial accounting course, as part of the final honors project, as a group we were given a hypothetical scenario of a boutique opening a second location in a nearby city, and were expected to create business revenue projections as well as advice on if the possible business expansion is feasible.
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ENGL 3040: Business Writing
In this course focused on how to properly write different business documents. The final group project focused on writing a grant request for a non-profit organization, of which my group decided to create a fictional dog shelter who was requesting a grant for a fundraising and adoption event.
Spanish Studies
SPAN 3020- Intermediate Spanish Grammar & Composition: This intermediate Spanish course is focused heavily on grammar, with the intention of improving students' writing skills in the language. This is accomplished through various essays, revision of verb tenses and conjugations, in class writing exercises, and constant grammar review.
SPAN 3080- The Hispanic World: Latin America: In this course, the class deep dove into important aspects of Latin-American history, culture, politics, and values. Starting with advanced ancient civilizations (like the Mayas and Aztecs), up until modern society, the class analyzed sources and participated in discussions about topics such as colonization, racial hierarchies, latin-american artists, political structures, and the drug trade.
SPAN 3050- Intermediate Spanish Composition & Conversation: This intermediate general Spanish language course focused heavily on grammar practice with the goal of improving overall fluency in both writing and speaking Spanish. This was obtained through drilling verb tenses and transition phrases, as well as doing many practice essays and Talkabroad conversations (a website that lets you converse with a native speaker living in a Spanish speaking country).
SPAN 3140- Hispanic Linguistics: Hispanic linguistics is a course focused on the general study of language and its structure, particularly in the context of the specific sounds, phonemes, and syntax used in the Spanish language. This course takes into consideration the general social and cognitive theories of linguistics, as well as studying the ways specific sounds are produced in the mouth, nose, and throat.
SPAN 4030- Spanish/American Women Writers: Through the use of Spanish short stories and movies by latino creators, many themes are analyzed and discussed, often related to discrimination against certain latin american groups, and issues associated with the feminine experience and struggle against stereotypical gender roles.
Spanish Proficiency
SP 3080: The Hispanic World
In this course, we explored many themes regarding the history, politics, and culture of various Latin American countries. In the below essay, I analyze themes regarding the accomplishments of the Mayan empire during the height of their reign .
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SP 3050: Grammar & Composition
This course takes a specific focus on fine-tuning Spanish grammar skills, especially in regards to writing essays and comprehending texts. In the essay below, I recount my high school trip to France and how it was one of the most memorable experience of my life.
Other Required Courses
REL 1010- Intro to Religion (Cross-cultural awareness): In this cross-cultural awareness course, the professor took an unorthodox approach to exploring world religions, using a textbook called “The Anthropology of Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion”. Common aspects amongst religions are explored (funeral rites, rituals, talismen, etc.) whilst using an incredibly objective perspective, viewing mainstream religions like christianity with the same credibility and importance as small-scale tribal religions practiced throughout the world.
POSC 1020- Intro to International Relations (Social Science Requirement): In this introductory political science course, topics related to international government and country interactions are explored through the analysis of world history, international institutions, major world powers, and various paradigms commonly used in the world of international relations to make sense of our ever-evolving global political dynamic.
PHIL 1030- Introduction to Ethics (Arts and Humanities): Through the analysis of works by many famous philosophers such as Rousseau and John Locke, this class aimed to discover the “right” answers to ethical issues that have been consistently controversial amongst various nations such as abortion, euthanasia, drug decriminalization, pornography, etc. This course paid special attention to the idea of if a government even has the authority to set laws establishing an ethical code for society.
COMM 2500- Public Speaking (Oral Communication): As an oral communication requirement, this course's goal was to get students comfortable and confident in research, speech writing, and public speaking. More specifically, this course had students prepare and present group speeches, informational speeches, and persuasive speeches focusing on the acquisition of competent communication skills.
Political Literacy
POSC 1020: Intro to International Relations
In this Political Science class, we explored the basics of International Relations, including paradigms used to explore them, major world conflicts, and modern changes in international government. The essay below analyzes two documentaries following protests in Ukraine and Egypt.