Business and Organizations Major and Minor
In the Carnegie Foundation's influential and mold-breaking book Rethinking Undergraduate Business Education: Liberal Learning for the Profession (January 2011), the authors point out that the world needs business leaders who can manage complexity, think creatively, and leverage the insights of others -- skills honed far more explicitly in the liberal arts than in business. The call for a thoughtful balance between mastery of business disciplines and exploration of alternative perspectives is one the Gerstacker Institute seeks to emulate and benchmark itself against.
The Gerstacker Institute for Business and Management offers an interdisciplinary major that encourages students to explore the practical and dynamic subject of business without confining the curriculum to a single discipline. Two academic programs exist within the Institute -- a Business and Organizations major and a Business and Organizations minor -- both of which provide a solid educational foundation in common business subjects such as accounting, economics, statistics, professional communication and writing, global issues, management and ethics. The program is further enhanced by developing critical thinking and leadership through other opportunities such as Gerstacker Institute speakers and participation in the First-Year workshop and the Senior Capstone event. Furthermore, required internships allow students to experience various career paths and to put their education into practice.
Students majoring or minoring in Business and Organizations can expect:
-
An approach to business education that addresses depth (through specialties such as accounting, marketing, management, and finance) as well as breadth (through a foundation anchored in the liberal arts).
-
A focus on putting the critical thinking skills developed through the liberal arts into action -- in the form of the Institute's many experiential opportunities, such as internships, off-campus and study-abroad experiences, and others.
-
An exploration into entrepreneurial thinking in and out of the classroom -- through case analyses, simulations, business plan development, and even the actual launching of ventures.
For more details, please see our page on Required Courses for the Business and Organizations major and minor.