THINKING GLOBALLY

Jessica Hill / For The Post

The first time Colin Gabler ever traveled, he booked a one-way ticket to Athens, Greece, after college. Nineteen countries and four months later, Gabler discovered how much passion he had for traveling.

“Once it hit, ‘boom, this is what I’ve been missing,’ ” Gabler said. “This is a whole other part of the world that I know nothing about.”

Since then, Gabler has run with bulls in Pamplona, Spain, and eaten hárkarl, a dish in which fermented shark is buried and then hung to dry, in Iceland. He has traveled to 36 countries and 48 U.S. states.

Gabler, an assistant professor in the marketing department, teaches professional sales, sustainability and marketing, and the global consulting program preparation course. He is Anthony Bartolomucci’s favorite professor.

“He’s definitely taught me a lot of things that I can at least use in my future whenever I’m dealing with people that aren’t from the United States or don’t speak the same language,” Bartolomucci, a junior studying accounting and business pre-law, said.

As the director of the Global Consulting Program, a study abroad program that prepares students to communicate with international clients and takes them on a two-week trip to countries such as Spain and Italy, Gabler teaches students preparing to study abroad about the foreign culture and how to interact with clients from different countries.

When he was earning his Ph.D. at University of Alabama in 2013, Gabler accompanied two study abroad programs and realized how much of a powerful experience it was for the students. Once he came to Ohio University, he learned about the Global Consulting Program and was immediately interested in teaching the course and leading students on trips abroad.

"Once it hit, ‘boom, this is what I’ve been missing. This is a whole other part of the world that I know nothing about."– Colin Gabler

“I could have a really good impact because I was passionate about it, and so I thought it would really cool,” Gabler said. “I thought I could infuse my passion into the students.”

Although his role, which started fall of 2016, in the Global Consulting Program may have sparked people to vote for him as someone with a worldly view, his passion for sustainability may also have a great impact on his global perspective. In his sustainability and marketing class, he examines topics at a global scale, such as income inequality and the effects of the western world’s materialism on developing countries. Gabler wants to explore solving the global food crisis, in which enough food is being produced around the world, but millions of people are going hungry, he said.

“He really cares a lot about the planet and green solutions, and things of that nature. Also, he’s traveled a ton,” Max Reichert, one of Gabler’s students who is a senior studying marketing, said. “I would say it’s like his combination of just being really involved with environmental solutions, environmental problems and sustainability, and also (being) involved in the global consulting program.”

Gabler has invited students in the Global Consulting Program to his house where he and his wife cook dishes from the countries the group is planning on going to. Nikki Mauder, a junior studying management and strategic leadership, said Gabler cooked botticelli pasta for the students in preparation for their trip to Ancona, Italy.

“It was a good way for us to engage with other peers that were going on the trip because we didn’t all know each other,” Mauder said. “That was really cool that he opened his house to us and that we had an Italian dinner night.”

Gabler stressed that when people can travel abroad and learn about another culture, they can also combat the “ugly American stereotype,” in which some Americans travel abroad simply to be there and not have any interest in learning about the country they are visiting.

“Traveling outside of your community, state (or) country exposes you to ideas, values and opinions that might not make you change your mind,” he said. “But they’ll show you that the world is a much different place.”

Photo by: Hannah Ruhoff / Staff Photographer

Development by: Taylor Johnston / Digital Production Editor