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For Immediate Release King’s College Receives International Business Grant from U.S. Department of Education; Will Partner with Local Agencies July 6, 2010 - King’s College was recently awarded a grant of more than $183,000 from the U.S. Department of Education’s Business and International Education Program (BIE). The grant will support a two-year project to internationalize curriculum in the College’s McGowan School of Business and to develop international study abroad, internship, and research opportunities for King’s students and faculty. The College will partner with three business organizations to improve regional companies’ international business competitiveness through entrepreneurship and ethics activities. The grant was one of 22 awarded nationally for BIE projects beginning July 1 with total funding of $2 million. The BIE grant will cover half of the budgeted expenses of the project; the rest of the project costs will be provided by King’s College, the College’s McGowan School of Business, the McGowan Center for Ethics and Public Life, and other non-governmental sources. “For King’s students, it is no longer enough to acquaint students with the global economic, cultural and political environment in the classroom,” said Father Thomas O’Hara, C.S.C., president of King’s. “Students must learn first-hand how these factors influence the way people interact and how their culture impacts business relationships in the United States and abroad. Funded activities, along with the College’s Study Abroad Program will better prepare King’s students for citizenship in a dynamic global environment.” “This grant helps King’s fulfill its recent strategic initiatives of responding to a diverse and changing society and building collaborative connections to the community and the world,” said Father Jack Ryan, C.S.C., dean of the McGowan School of Business. Grant activities will focus on four objectives which include undergraduate business curriculum development, origination of faculty development initiatives, increasing student opportunities for both cross cultural and experiential learning, and increasing collaborations with the regional business community to develop educational programming in international business. “Curriculum development will involve the development of five new courses including e-commerce, export and import management, global entrepreneurship, and international legal and regulatory issues,” said Bindu J. Vyas, Ph.D., associate professor of business administration and project director. “Faculty development initiatives will include study tours to universities in Chile, England, and Ireland that are accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the highest standard of achievement for business schools worldwide.” The McGowan School of Business is one of only 42 solely undergraduate programs in the United States to hold AACSB accreditation. Faculty members will evaluate the international business programs as they relate to international business certification, research activities, and the development of affiliations with study abroad and internship programs to provide King’s students with greater opportunities for overseas international business study. King’s business partners for this grant are the Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce; the Northeast Pennsylvania Alliance, a regional export network of seven Northeast Pennsylvania counties; and The Sustainable Energy Fund, based in Allentown. Program activities will benefit the regional business community by expanding King’s annual Global Landscapes Conference; developing a North American Small Business International Trade Educator’s (NASBITE) Certified Global Business Professional (CGBP) credential examination review; and the creation of a King’s-hosted web portal designed to share business education knowledge on topics including business, ethics, entrepreneurship, networks, and environmental awareness. King's College is a Catholic College sponsored by the Congregation of Holy Cross. |