Washington University’s Steve Malter feels there is a great place for students studying business in the United States to learn about the science of entrepreneurship. And that place is Israel.

“I was in Israel through USY in the summer of 1990. My first trip back to Israel was March of 2010,” he said. “To me, it was almost like it was a different country. To see how big a player Israel is in the international business stage was just fascinating.”

Fortunately, Malter, assistant dean and director of undergraduate programming at Washington U’s Olin Business School, is able to share the Jewish State’s transformation with others. As creator of the university’s “Business, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Israel” course, Malter has led his class for visits to the Middle East nation for the past few years.

Now that program is being expanded. The 40-year-old Florida native will be heading up a six-week stay in Israel rather than eight to 10 days. The idea, said the United Hebrew congregant, is to truly envelop students in the business culture of the region.

“We’ve been doing some really creative and innovative entrepreneurial programs going to Israel for five or six years,” Malter said, “and now we’re excited to leverage what we’ve done, expand it and open opportunities to students from all over the country.”

Participants in the six-credit-hour course will stay in Tel Aviv during their visit.

“It really is a combination of classroom learning and immersing yourself in an environment,” he said. “It is easy to learn in a classroom but to actually live it, you really have a much greater appreciation for what you are learning and putting knowledge into practice.”

The program also encompasses a second course on startup consulting. Previously, the trip had only been available to Washington U undergraduates but now students nationwide can avail themselves of the opportunity. Even non-business majors are welcome to participate.

Malter expects about 20 to 50 students will visit Israel in 2014. He thinks the trip will help them see the Jewish State in a new way.

“When you think of Israel, one of the first things you think of is religion, conflict, politics. This program really shows students Israel in a new light, as a global economic powerhouse and player,” he said. “For students, I think the perceptions coming in are so different when they finish the class because of their experiences in meeting Israelis and entrepreneurs.”

Those meetings include get-togethers with pioneers in everything from venture capital to crowdfunding. Malter expects that for many of the participants, it’s likely to be their first visit to Mideast. However, even those who have been there before will find much to recommend the experience.

“Some of the most amazing impacts have been on the students who have been to Israel 20 times,” he said. “This trip allows them to experience it in a whole new way from an entirely different perspective. Even having been there so much, they really had no idea. It’s an amazing learning opportunity regardless of religious persuasion.”

The program is only one part of Wash U’s efforts in the field of international business. The school also has a presence in locales such as Sydney, London, Sao Paulo and Hong Kong.

“One of my roles at the Olin school is to help students understand the global nature of business. This is just one of many programs we have in our global portfolio,” Malter said. “I think it is important for students to get abroad, learn about different cultures and different business environments. Israel happens to be place for entrepreneurship.”

Jeremy Sherman, a junior at Wash U, certainly feels the course was beneficial. He took the trip in the spring of last year. 

“I had never seen Israel through a business perspective before,” said the 21-year-old economics and strategy and political science double major. “We had been studying all the business elements in Israel, how the economy grew. Actually seeing it in person and interacting with business leaders and government officials, really seeing the startups and those kinds of things was really inspiring.”

Sherman said the group visited generic drug giant Teva Pharmaceuticals as well as Yahoo’s offices in Tel Aviv and a business incubator. They also met with a representative from the prime minister’s office and took an electric car on a test drive.

“We went to the Tel Aviv stock exchange and even saw Intel in Haifa, which is extremely interesting seeing the way they make all their chips and microprocessors,” noted Sherman, who is Jewish.

He said he’d definitely recommend the experience to others.

“You’ll see business in an interesting way but you’ll also see Israel in an interesting way,” he said noting that he felt he carried a more startup-focused mindset back to his own country. “Everyone is so gung-ho on their idea. It’s really inspirational and makes you want to come back and have that entrepreneurial spirit here in the States.”

Chandler Weir, a marketing and international business major originally from the Minneapolis area, said she enjoyed taking the trip as a freshman over spring break this year. The 19-year-old felt that because she was not Jewish the journey was even more educational.

“I absolutely loved it, especially because I come from a non-Jewish background,” she said. “The area I grew up in wasn’t heavily Jewish. I always tell people I got probably twice as much out of the trip because I had none of the religious or historical background.”

Weir said she hadn’t previously been aware of Israel’s startup boom. She also believes her immersion in the culture allowed her to better understand her Jewish classmates at Washington University.

“I felt like it helped me even within my own school community, to learn a little more about my peers,” she said.