Business Students Chosen to Participate in USDA Food Export Challenge

A team of four Dominican University students has been selected to participate in the 2023 Agricultural Export Market Challenge from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service.

The challenge is an experiential learning experience in which undergraduate students use case studies and role playing to simulate the work that experts from the USDA’s Foreign Agriculture Service perform daily to increase export opportunities for U.S. food and agricultural products. They will be tasked with finding solutions to various issues, including creating new market opportunities and strengthening food security.

Dominican students participating are Cooper Cawley (economics), Ulises Flores (economics and international relations), and Angelica Moreno (management and economics). Makynna Rieff, a Concordia student who is taking international business courses at Dominican, rounds out the team.

Dominican is one of 16 minority-serving colleges and universities from across the country — and the only one in Illinois — to be selected for the challenge, according to an announcement from the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities and the USDA’s Foreign Agriculture Service.

The goal, the organizations say, is to help students gain knowledge and skills in economics, diplomacy, scientific analysis, marketing and trade policy.

“The challenge will give our students the opportunity to demonstrate their creativity and critical thinking skills on a national stage, and that is really exciting,” said Kathleen Odell, the team’s faculty mentor, and associate dean of Dominican’s Brennan School of Business. “For the students, this is an opportunity to connect directly with mentors at the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service and to learn more about the agency and its work in international markets.”

The case study assigned to the team will also give the students an opportunity to apply skills they have learned in class to the process of solving a real-world problem similar to what the Foreign Agricultural Service handles daily, Odell added.

The 16 competing teams will present solutions to the Foreign Agriculture Service leadership in late February and early March. The team selected as the winner of the challenge will travel to Washington, D.C. to meet with USDA leaders.