The major in Global Affairs and International Business gives students the intellectual foundation to think about global interactions. We know that we live in a “globalized” world, in which interactions with other countries are inescapable. “Globalization” is not just a political phenomenon, or an economic phenomenon, or a cultural phenomenon: it affects the very fabric of our lives, and it does so in a million directions. Not only do we need to know about it, we need to have the intellectual foundation with which to think about interactions that span the planet. For this reason, a major like Global Affairs and International Business is an attractive complement to a solid liberal education.
While many schools may offer this kind of interdisciplinary major, what puts Ave Maria University in a position of strength is that we offer faculty in business, economics, and politics who not only have a great deal of knowledge and experience in the area but who also know each other very well and can help each other see these issues from many sides. The Global Affairs and International Business major builds on and integrates a high-quality and rigorous curriculum in economics, politics, and business, helping students become careful thinkers and actors in the global society.
Our majors emphasize analytical thinking and tools: the intellectual equipment and critical skills needed to understand and excel in business and in most other human endeavors. Ave Maria students have the unique fortune of building on a foundation of a liberal education, an education on the basic realities about God and the world, man and his relationship with God and nature. Through our liberal arts curriculum, students learn that reality is coherent and intelligible and grow in the habit – in the essential business skill – of looking for patterns and seeing the sense in the apparent contradictions of the world that surrounds them.
We aim to inspire students to become business leaders inspired by Christian ideals and governed by Christian ideas. Relying on the Catholic faith lived intensely on campus and on the general intellectual formation of the Core Curriculum, what animates the program is the Catholic view of the human person, his nature, and his ultimate destiny. The distinctive character of the program is its belief in the dignity of the human person, in the reality and importance of the common good, in subsidiarity and solidarity, in ownership as stewardship, and in responsibility for the environment. Because students learn to value human beings for what they are, not for what utility they bring, they are able to serve the Church and their society loyally and generously.
