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Ahlers Center Awarded Grant to Boost Trade in Asia and Latin America

The Ahlers Center for International Business at the University of San Diego has been awarded a $185,000 grant to help boost trade in emerging markets in Asia and Latin America.

Companies and organizations are increasingly setting their sights on developing and emerging countries for future growth potential. However, these countries generally have political, economic, legal and social institutions that are not as formalized and well-developed compared to traditional industrialized Western markets that are often still the focus in our academic institutions. “We want to train the next generation of business managers and leaders who will understand the culture, economics and geopolitics pertinent to these new markets,” said Denise Dimon, USD professor of economics and director of the Ahlers Center. With the funding from the U.S. Department of Education, Business and International (BIE) program “we hope to dramatically expand learning opportunities for businesses to effectively engage in the emerging markets of Asia and Latin America and assist them to become more competitive in exporting their goods and services.”

As part of the two-year grant, the Ahlers Center will help assist southern California businesses in becoming more competitive by offering an executive development program in global business strategy, providing international internships for USD students to assist local companies with international market information and offering a speaker series with visiting executives and professors.

Partnering with the World Trade Center San Diego, as well as USD’s Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies and College of Arts and Sciences, the center will be able to develop new courses, speaker events and increase internship and study-abroad opportunities for students.

The Ahlers Center, part of USD’s School of Business Administration, is one of the few privately endowed centers for international business in the world, providing a wide array of opportunities for USD students and faculty as well as the business community. The Center organizes several study abroad opportunities for students and faculty, a certificate program for continuous learning for working professionals in the area of global management and strategy, sponsors distinguished visiting international faculty and executives enriching courses and participating in community programs, edits and supports the Latin American Business Review, a quarterly journal focused on the business and academic environment of Latin America, as well as other international research projects of the USD School of Business Administration faculty.