Saint Anselm College has created an international business major, expanding the roster of majors to 32. This new area of concentration has been four years in the making, said Jeanne Kenison, chair of the Department of Economics and Business. It is a major that students increasingly seek when evaluating colleges, she said.

“All you have to do is look at the news at night to see how international business is,” said Terrence Kroeten, assistant professor of business. “It was something we had to offer.”

The department used existing strengths of the college—its demanding language program and liberal arts focus—to construct a program that incorporates language, politics, and history, as well as business and economics.

The major involves no new faculty members. The department has been hiring professors with international experience in anticipation of this change, Kenison said.

Michael McGuinness, assistant professor, was an executive with Converse, which had plants around the world. Professor Kroeten has led students in programs abroad and professor Kenison has been teaching international business.

Students can sign up for the international business major starting in the fall semester. On top of the courses required for an economics and business major, students will take two modern language courses beyond the intermediate level and a course in international relations, which has been a major in the Politics Department since 2002.

“We wanted to make it truly interdisciplinary,” Kroeten said. “I envision that other departments, such as English, criminal justice, and sociology, could offer courses that also could become electives. We would welcome interactions with those departments to build more options for our students.”