In the spirit of Michigan State University's "world-grant" initiative, MSU's International Business Center in the Eli Broad College of Business is implementing Pro Bono Services for businesses in the Greater Lansing Region (Michigan, USA) which are striving to engage in the global marketplace. The Michigan Export Growth Program was started with a seed grant from the Ford College Community Challenge, which funds projects that meet community leads, create student leaders while building sustainable communities and fostering community partnerships.

This is a conference that is part of the biennial Symposium on Multicultural Psychology at Michigan State University. The goal of the symposium is to identify the best practices and methodological lessons learned from conducting large scale multinational projects and will feature renowned researchers as invited speakers, breakout and discussion groups for interchange on one's own cross-cultural research, and a poster session.

Local companies are invited to a breakfast meeting to learn more about the Michigan Export Growth Program (MEGP), and how they can benefit from this innovative new program.

Robert Selig, Executive Director of the Capital Regional International Airport, presents "Lansing's International Port of Entry and Foreign Trade Zone"

Peter Pratt is Senior Vice President, Health & Human Services at Public Sector Consultants.

With this year's theme, we turn our attention to the variety of approaches employed in studying the processes and contexts of SLA. Researchers draw on theoretical linguistics, sociolinguistics, anthropology, cognitive science, psychology, educational science, and other disciplines. They gather and analyze data through laboratory research, classroom observations, case studies, ethnographies, and language corpora. They quantify and they interpret. At times it appears that these researchers are looking at completely different subject areas, but all identify themselves as working within the field of SLA. SLRF 2009 asks how these varied methodologies and approaches compose a single "field of SLA". We solicit papers, posters, and colloquia that address this question and that add to our understanding of SLA.

Michigan State University welcomes Consul General Huang Ping, Head of the Chinese Consulate in Chicago, to give a presentation about the trade relationship between the United States and the People's Republic of China. Presented by the Chinese Undergraduate Student Association and the Broad China Business Society with support from Bank of America and CIBER. Location: North Business College Complex, Michigan State University N100 (directions: http://www.bus.msu.edu/information/about/maps/nbusiness.cfm). Admission is free and everyone is invited to attend.

Claes Fornell is Chairman of CFI Group.

Andrew Mangan, Executive Director of the U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development, presents "Taking Your Business Global Through Foreign Partners."

Richard DeKaser is an economist at National City, now a part of PNC.