USD Awarded Grant to Boost Trade in Asia & Latin America

The Ahlers Center for International Business in USD’s School of Business Administration has been awarded a $185,000 grant to help businesses 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,” said Denise Dimon, USD professor of economics and director of the Ahlers Center. Consumption and productivity, even during the economic crisis, has remained very strong in developing countries. In fact, 12 of the top 25 export markets of California are to emerging markets and those 12 account for 45 percent of California’s exports, she said.

“However, these countries generally have political, economic, legal and social institutions that are not as formalized and well-developed as compared to traditional industrialized Western markets,” she said. “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.”

With the funding from the U.S. Department of Education, Business and International (BIE) program “we hope to dramatically expand learning and 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,” Dimon said.

As part of the two-year grant, the Ahlers Center will assist Southern California businesses in becoming more competitive by offering an executive development program in global business strategy, providing interns with international market information and offering a speaker series with visiting executives and professors.

Partnering further 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 and increase internship and study-abroad opportunities for students.

The Ahlers Center 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 to enrich courses and participate in community programs and edits and supports the “Latin American Business Review,” as well as other international research projects of the School of Business Administration faculty.

The University of San Diego is a Catholic institution of higher learning chartered in 1949; the school enrolls approximately 7,800 undergraduate and graduate students and is known for its commitment to teaching, the liberal arts, the formation of values and community service. The fall 2007 establishment of the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies brings the University’s total number of schools and colleges to six. Other academic divisions include the College of Arts and Sciences and the schools of Business Administration, Leadership and Education Sciences, Law and Nursing and Health Sciences.

###

About the University of San Diego

Strengthened by the Catholic intellectual tradition, we confront humanity’s challenges by fostering peace, working for justice and leading with love. With more than 8,000 students from 75 countries and 44 states, USD is the youngest independent institution on the U.S. News & World Report list of top 100 universities in the United States. USD’s eight academic divisions include the College of Arts and Sciences, the Knauss School of Business, the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering, the School of Law, the School of Leadership and Education Sciences, the Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science, the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, and the Division of Professional and Continuing Education. In 2021, USD was named a “Laudato Si’ University” by the Vatican with a seven-year commitment to address humanity’s urgent challenges by working together to take care of our common home.