Drake University football team gains new experiences in future ‘global hub’ Panama

Drake University football players worked with Panamanian youth at a football clinic during their visit to the country. (Photo courtesy of Drake University)

Perspective — this is what Drake University football player Finn Claypool is taking away from his time in the Republic of Panama.

Claypool said he never would have had the opportunity to travel to the country because of his commitment to the football team, but a “travel seminar” set up by the university is allowing him and other student athletes to gain new academic, athletic and cultural experiences.

The Drake Bulldogs are wrapping up an 11-day trip to Panama, where they took a course on Panama’s economy, met with local communities, business leaders and a U.S. ambassador, and played a preseason game against a Panamanian team. They return May 31.

“I think this is a first for most people on the team because of our athletic schedules, it makes it very hard to leave,” Claypool said. “So the university has done us a big favor in creating an experience where we can go abroad and get that student experience that a regular student would have the opportunity to get.”

This trip is one of many efforts the university is undertaking as it seeks to establish Panama as a “global outpost,” said Drake Executive Director of Global Engagement and International Programs Annique Kiel.

During its time in Panama, the team has split its time between a few different areas — football, tourist activities and school, Claypool said. They’re staying in the City of Knowledge, an old military base repurposed as a social innovation hub which houses a hotel, schools, organizations like the Red Cross and World Food Program and more.

Students are earning credit during their stay in the course, called “Panama and the Global Economy,” Kiel said. It uses Panama as a case study for education on globalization from economic, social and cultural viewpoints. Students also met with different Panamanian businesspeople, researchers or other experts, depending on their area of study.

In addition to the preseason game, which Drake won by more than 60 points, team members participated in a youth football clinic. They also visited an indigenous community, and U.S. Ambassador Mari Carmen Aponte hosted the team at her home and attended the game.

Claypool said this trip has given him a new perspective on Panama, which he didn’t know much about, and of his own interests and goals. Before having this experience, international business wasn’t really on the business law major’s mind, but after learning about Panama’s impact on the global economy and seeing the similarities between the country and the U.S., the idea of working internationally is growing on him.

“Getting a perspective of international business and how that works as one big global economy has been really, really good, and something I want to explore more,” Claypool said.

Kiel said the university has been working to weave academic experiences in with foreign athletic tours for students, which the NCAA allows for teams every four years. Drake also works to bring international experiences to campus through speakers and events.

“Drake has three main tenets of our mission statement, and one is responsible global citizenship,” Kiel said. “Drake places a lot of emphasis on that particular tenant and ensuring that students leave Drake when they graduate with some exposure to a global perspective.”

Drake’s ties with Panama go back to the 1970s and ’80s, Kiel said, when about 20 Panamanians studied at the university. Those alumni went back to Panama and became successful in their fields of business, and President Marty Martin connected with them in the late 2010s and began identifying opportunities for collaboration. Students were able to meet with some of those alumni during their trip.

The City of Knowledge partnered with Drake in 2023, and the university is working on plans for business challenges, School of Education student-teaching opportunities and programs for working abroad in the country.

Kiel said these partnerships and opportunities for students will serve to make Panama the university’s first “global outpost,” or a hub of Drake activity outside of the U.S.

The standard line of thinking when it comes to international outreach from higher education institutions is that the broader the array of countries and programs, the better, Kiel said, but Drake has moved to a different strategy of creating unique opportunities in a narrower group of countries. Staff, faculty and alumni can be involved in these programs, Kiel said, and having deeper relationships with fewer international partners can open new doors.

Claypool said this is a smart move for Drake, whose student population totals just under 5,000. It can’t make the same decisions as a large school like the University of Iowa, he said, so focusing on where there is already a support base for the school will allow for more opportunities and expansion years down the line.

“The world is vast,” Kiel said. “So we’ve been trying to move away from broader engagement with multiple partners around the world to deeper engagement with fewer partners, which allows for more of a focus and an impact versus just exposure.”

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