Published on: Wednesday, June 09, 2010

The U.S. Department of Education, through its International Business Education Program, has awarded Bowie State University's College of Business a Business and International Education grant totaling approximately $85,000 per year for two years. Bowie State will match the grant for a total of $340,000.

"The BIE grant will enhance our efforts to offer a relevant international business curriculum to students and provide practical global business tools and techniques to small businesses, stated Anthony Nelson, dean of BSU's College of Business. "We will be better able to help students and local businesses compete and succeed in the global marketplace."

The BSU International Business Initiative will enhance the ability of the College of Business to internationalize its business program by improving existing curricula and developing three new courses: Supply Chain Management, International Business Entrepreneurship and Advanced International Business Seminar for Practitioners. In addition an undergraduate track in international business will be developed.

"We are excited to have received this extremely competitive grant, which most universities are not successful in obtaining the first time," said Granville Sawyer, BIE project manager.

"We are ready for the challenge of organizing and conducting all of the activities associated with this opportunity."

Business faculty members will work with the Department of English and Modern Languages at Bowie State to offer a new African Language and Business Skill Course (Amharic-101).

Bowie State will also collaborate with the Africa Trade Office in Prince George's County to enhance the ability of small and medium-sized businesses in the Washington metropolitan area (especially those owned and operated by women, minorities and immigrants) to conduct business internationally, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Bowie State and the ATO will conduct a series of export-readiness workshops and digital video conferences between U.S. and Ethiopian firms.

Furthermore, the College will team up with Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia to increase the international business knowledge and global awareness of faculty and students at Bowie State University and AAU by hosting faculty and student exchange programs.

Students will have the opportunity to participate in a 10-day study abroad program in Ethiopia in early spring 2011 and 2012.

"The BIE grant is a great opportunity to extend our reach to another continent," stated Fiseha Eshete, BIE project co-director. "I am looking forward to helping to facilitate an exchange between students and faculty at BSU and those in Ethiopia, which is the land of my birth."