For Academic Year

2000-2001

¨ CIBES co-sponsored the "Russia: A Decade of Progress" 2001 Summer Business Institute.

¨ CIBES, Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Northeast Region, and Center for International Education (CIE), organized a half-day business conference entitled "New Opportunities for Growth and Development: Showcasing Salem State College Students," which was co-sponsored by the SSC Enterprise Center. On 25 April 2001, forty-four people attended the workshop, of which thirteen were students, eighteen were representatives of local businesses, primarily located at the Enterprise Center, and thirteen were members of the Salem State College community. The workshop featured three students enrolled in BUS 473-Export/Import Management, who presented their own feasibility projects on exporting/importing a product of their choice from and to a country of their choice. Other presenters included faculty and local business professionals that have had the opportunity to work with SSC students in the business world.

¨ As Executive Director of CIBES, Dr. Farahbakhsh co-sponsored "Earth Day: Linking Health and the Environment through Activism, Research, and Art." The celebration was the first Salem State College Earth Day recognition since the late 1970's. The month long activities encompassed a belief that change can take place only when communities are working together. As a result, the work of local artists Gail and Sabrina McCormick, entitled "Our Fragile Earth," was on display throughout the month of April in SSC library. The Earth Day celebration culminated on 23 April 2001 when artwork of local children from grades K-8 was displayed. Their work illustrated the love that children have for the environment and allowed the audience to see the Earth through their eyes. In addition, SSC students from fifteen different disciplines also displayed the results of their environmental and health-related research in poster sessions. After an awards ceremony recognizing both the K-8 and SSC student posters, former Boston Globe columnist and noted environmental author Dianne Dumanoski spoke on the topic "Unwitting Guinea Pigs: Health and the Synthetic Contaminants in Our Bodies."

¨ Executive Director, Massoud Farahbakhsh finalized the Double Diploma Agreement with Sup de Co Montpellier after six years of negotiations! Shortly after the official signing by President Harrington, on 17 April 2001, Sup de Co Montpellier confirmed that two or three MBA students would be attending Salem State College in Fall 2001.

¨ CIBES arranged for two guest speakers for the BUS 473-Export/Import Management class in Spring 2001. James Cox, Deputy Director of US Department of Commerce Export Assistance Center, and Paula Murphy, Director of Massachusetts Export Center, both spoke with the students about the different services and programs that are available through the various State and Federal agencies.

¨ Timothy Barry, a student in International Business Concentration took BUS 473 Export/Import Management as an independent study course with Dr. Farahbakhsh in Spring 2001. His paper entitled "Granite Medical: Export Opportunities in Central America" was based on a Granite Medical Resources Company's (a Rockport, MA based small business) request for assistance. The final paper was submitted to the company officials for their evaluation and implementation.

¨ Executive Director, Massoud Farahbakhsh, forwarded the final version of the "Feasibility Study for Establishing a Foreign Trade Zone at Salem State College" to President Harrington on 20 December 2000 to be considered by the Salem State Assistance Corporation. This was the culmination of a project that was started in 1997. That year President Harrington asked for suggestions to utilize the business portion of the Central Campus. Dr. Farahbakhsh came up with the idea of establishing a Foreign Trade Zone at the mentioned site and assigned it as a project to three of his MBA students in BUS 840 International Business, in Spring 1998. The first draft of the paper entitled "Foreign Trade Zones: A Feasibility Study for Salem State College" was submitted August 1998. This report went through many revisions and changes and has been presented at two different conferences. First at "Reforming the Universities for the 21^st Century: conference on 31 July 1999 in Beijing, PRC. Then, on 22 April 2000, with his Graduate Assistant, Ralph Pecora, at the "SSC Graduate Research Day 2000, Showcasing Faculty and Student Research" conference. The paper was subsequently published in the proceedings of the mentioned conference.

¨ As a result of cooperation with the SBDC, CIBES placed an international trade intern, Kreda Omari, a native of Albania, at the Central Campus Enterprise Center for 2000-2001 academic year, to assist small to medium size businesses in the North Shore area.

¨ With the assistance of Melissa Brady, Dr. Farahbakhsh's Graduate Assistant, the CIBES web page continues to grow and is regularly updated. You may visit the site at: http://www.business.salemstate.edu/cibes/.