New courses launching in Spring 2014 will enhance existing curriculum.

Stetson’s International Business department has received approval for major curricular revisions that have been under design and review for more than a year. New classes have been added that will help prepare students for real-world expectations of potential employers.

“We are really excited about the revisions to the curriculum,” said department chairman Bill Andrews, Ph.D. “We took the strengths of our old curriculum, namely cross-cultural training and experiential learning, and married them to the industry practice standards expressed in the Certified Global Business Professional (CGBP) designation.”

The CGBP is a certification developed by Fortune 500 companies, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and academia that captures what an industry professional would be expected to know in four areas: cross-cultural management, global marketing, supply chain management, and trade finance and documentation.

Significant changes to the curriculum include the addition of three courses. However, “these courses will replace others so the total number required of a student will not increase,” said Andrews. New courses include:

• International Entrepreneurship – an experiential course in which students will launch products or businesses internationally;
• International Trade Administration — which will expose students to international trade finance, documentation and regulation; and
• Supply Chain Management — which will look at the strategic and operational issues of global supply chain management.

Exceptional faculty members at the School of Business Administration have been chosen to lead students majoring in International Business. In addition to Andrews, faculty members include Jon Carrick, Ph.D., Carolyn Mueller, Ph.D., and Luis Paris, M.B.A.

“Jon and Lou both have extensive experience conducting business internationally,” said Andrews. “Carolyn is a graduate of one of the top IB masters programs in the country and is doing some very innovative things in her cross-cultural dynamics course, forming project teams with students from other countries to collaborate on business problems.” Andrews is a graduate of the Thunderbird School of Global Management.

In addition to the business coursework, the IB curriculum requires students to spend a semester studying abroad or participate in a structured international internship of at least six weeks. Students must also take two broadly construed “culture courses” to better understand the history, politics or economy of a particular region of the world, and must complete language courses at the -202 level.

For more information, feel free to email one of the faculty members at [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] or [email protected].