globalEDGE Business Beat - January 2021

Speaker: Jade Sims, Michigan State International Business Center

Air Date: January 22, 2021

John Christian is President and CEO of CAPA Global Education Network. CAPA is based in Boston but is a truly global organization with employees located all over the world, focused on bringing U.S. students abroad for professional formation experiences.

The organization has existed since 1972, but given the global pandemic, has had to pivot quickly to find ways to continue to offer its services. CAPA works closely with several colleges and programs at Michigan State University, as well as other schools and institutions around the U.S., to tailor programs to the academic and experiential needs of its partners. John and Jade talk about the challenges of educating with a global mindset given current challenges and a backlash against globalization.

John and Jade talk about the challenges of educating with a global mindset given current challenges and a backlash against globalization.

Speaker: Jade Sims, Michigan State International Business Center

Air Date: January 25, 2021

Allie Fox VanDriel is an International Marketing Specialist at the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development’s International Marketing Program, where she has assisted Michigan companies grow their exports around the globe for five years. Allie is a Certified Global Business Professional (CGBP), a graduate of Michigan State University, and holds an MBA from Central Michigan University.

The program provides all levels and types of assistance to companies interested in beginning or expanding global sales, from market research to consulting to technical information (certificates, labeling) and international trade shows and trade missions. Working with Food Export, financial assistance is in many cases available for Michigan company marketing efforts.

Allie and Jade talk about what the international travel activities entail, and what companies can expect by participating. There are lots of upcoming trainings online and in-person that serve as great resources.

Speaker: Jade Sims, Michigan State International Business Center

Air Date: January 26, 2021

Sam Kaplan is the director of the Center of Excellence for Global Trade and Supply Chain Management located at Highline College. The Center works with education and industry throughout Washington on workforce development issues. Previously, Sam ran the Trade Development Alliance connecting Seattle-area businesses with international opportunities, worked on foreign affairs issues for a U.S. Representative, and publishes the weekly e-newsletter, International Need to Know.

Given Seattle’s strategic position as a real gateway from Asia and also located so close to the Canadian border (as we are in MI), Sam talks about how tightly its economy is tied into the world’s. The current pandemic has really forced us to consider the global relationships that we take for granted in terms of supply chains as well as how we interact with the world more generally.

Here, Jade and Sam discuss moving forward both as a society and in terms of global trade in the short and medium terms.

Speaker: Jade Sims, Michigan State International Business Center

Air Date: January 27, 2021

Stephanie Kelly, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of Community Colleges for International Development (CCID). The organization, founded in 1976, has been helping member schools further their internationalization initiatives and develop globally competent workers for the past 40 years.

CCID offers networking as well as online and in-person training to faculty and administrators to create globally engaged learning environments. While some of this work involves study abroad, CCID also assists with other exciting and creative activities that bring global cultures and business into the classroom, like cross-border team activities that engage students at different schools in different countries to solve modern international business issues. While there are currently only 3 colleges in Michigan that are members, the organization is open to engaging new partners around the country to further its goals of modernizing and globalizing the workforce in an effort to strengthen U.S. competitiveness.