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The Master of Science in Business Analysis Blog.
A master's program in business for non-business majors that can be completed in less than one year.
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Hire God as the CEO of Your Life
The MSBA class was grateful to have Amy and Dan Smith join as guest speakers for last month.
Amy Smith of Amy V. Smith Wealth Management, LLC is dedicated to helping clients invest with purpose and plan for the future and has 17 years of experience providing customized solutions for individuals and couples seeking pre- and post- retirement plans. She also specializes in financial planning for those who find themselves unexpectedly single due to unforeseen circumstances or as a result of their spouse's death
Mrs. Smith shared with us the story of how her own life took an unexpected turn after the sudden death of her husband and she was forced to learn firsthand the difficulties faced by someone who is not prepared for life’s unexpected events. In order to provide for herself and her young daughter, Amy decided to pursue financial planning as her profession.
We won't give away her whole story and all of her tips for success, but here are a few snippets from her talk:
Mrs. Smith related many of her points to CUA’s vision of Reason, Faith and Service, stating that it is a simple and correct mantra to live by.
"I found I could have it all but not all at the same time and all the way and the way I wanted."
Have at least three strong mentors throughout your life.
Networking is critical and joining service organizations and being involved in the community is a great way to network.
If your goal is to make a million dollars you won’t be successful even though you may make a million dollars. If your goal is to help people, you will make the million dollars AND be successful.
Sir John Templeton of Franklin Templeton fame, when asked what his greatest investment was replied, tithing.
In advising students on how to manage their personal finances as they start their careers and grow:
The MSBA class and faculty thank you both for coming to speak to the class!
Read More »
Amy Smith of Amy V. Smith Wealth Management, LLC is dedicated to helping clients invest with purpose and plan for the future and has 17 years of experience providing customized solutions for individuals and couples seeking pre- and post- retirement plans. She also specializes in financial planning for those who find themselves unexpectedly single due to unforeseen circumstances or as a result of their spouse's death
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| Amy and Dan Smith |
Mrs. Smith shared with us the story of how her own life took an unexpected turn after the sudden death of her husband and she was forced to learn firsthand the difficulties faced by someone who is not prepared for life’s unexpected events. In order to provide for herself and her young daughter, Amy decided to pursue financial planning as her profession.
We won't give away her whole story and all of her tips for success, but here are a few snippets from her talk:
Mrs. Smith related many of her points to CUA’s vision of Reason, Faith and Service, stating that it is a simple and correct mantra to live by.
"I found I could have it all but not all at the same time and all the way and the way I wanted."
Have at least three strong mentors throughout your life.
Networking is critical and joining service organizations and being involved in the community is a great way to network.
If your goal is to make a million dollars you won’t be successful even though you may make a million dollars. If your goal is to help people, you will make the million dollars AND be successful.
- For example: Amy leads bible-based financial management seminars at churches, asking nothing in return. Her husband Dan offers free estate planning advice to potential clients with no fee or obligation.
Sir John Templeton of Franklin Templeton fame, when asked what his greatest investment was replied, tithing.
In advising students on how to manage their personal finances as they start their careers and grow:
- Start a savings discipline early in a IRA or Roth IRA. Contribute regularly and often because company funded or matched retirement plans are disappearing
- Diversify-unless you have time to do your homework, invest in a mutual fund or a financial advisor. The market is driven by fear and greed and none of us have a crystal ball to predict what will happen
- Be mindful of the “total Return” on an investment. A total return takes into account appreciation, and taxes on gains and inflation. Just because an investment’s price went up 10% doesn’t mean you put that in your pocket.
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| Dan, Amy and Stew |
Monday, March 16, 2015
Words from Business Reporter Tom Heath
The MSBA class enjoyed an evening with Washington Post business writer Tom Heath, a local business reporter and columnist, who writes about entrepreneurs and various companies (big and small) in the Washington Metropolitan area.
Tom shared his experiences interviewing some
of the biggest icons of the business world like Louis Gerstner Jr., IBM, Mort
Zuckerburg, CEO of Boston Properties, Time Inc.'s Norman Pearlstine and
others. Mr. Heath talked about the
traits he thinks separates successful entrepreneurs from the rest of the
pack. He also shared his advice for
cooperating with the press when the students are in a position to grant
interviews at a point in their careers.
Mr. Heath previously wrote about the business of sports for The Post’s sports section for most of a decade. He has also covered local news, including the Maryland General Assembly and investigative work in Fairfax county, and served as a correspondent for Newsweek and The Post. Heath was born and raised in Syracuse, N.Y., where he attended Catholic schools.
Read More »
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| Tom Heath of The Washington Post |
Mr. Heath previously wrote about the business of sports for The Post’s sports section for most of a decade. He has also covered local news, including the Maryland General Assembly and investigative work in Fairfax county, and served as a correspondent for Newsweek and The Post. Heath was born and raised in Syracuse, N.Y., where he attended Catholic schools.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Jobs, Jobs Everywhere!
There's a reason why the MSBA program boasts 100% of our students gain employment within three months of graduation. Take a look at the amazing strides some of our past and present students are taking!
2014 graduate Logan Scott is now working for in the account management/customer service field on the Legal team at CEB.
In January, Jenna Antos, class of 2011, began working as a senior account manager for Snow Companies in Williamsburg.
Winfred Amoako will be working on the Microsoft team as an associate digital media planner. Winfred graduated in the class of 2013 and is from Ghana.
Kendall Swenson recently started an internship at Trees for the Future.
After graduation, Tiba Tavassoli will start as a full time employee at FEMA, where she is currently interning as a Program Support Assistant.
Our MSBA students and graduates continue to amaze us and make us proud. We admire all of your hard work and dedication. We love to do posts that feature our past and present students, so if you have news of any kind you would like to share, please email caseye@cua.edu.
Read More »
2014 graduate Logan Scott is now working for in the account management/customer service field on the Legal team at CEB.
The MSBA class of 2015 is also doing great things!
Kendall Swenson recently started an internship at Trees for the Future.Our MSBA students and graduates continue to amaze us and make us proud. We admire all of your hard work and dedication. We love to do posts that feature our past and present students, so if you have news of any kind you would like to share, please email caseye@cua.edu.
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
MSBA Open House
A little ice and a delay can't bring us down! Our heads are still reeling from the turnout at last week's MSBA Open House. Over 50 prospective students, alumni, current students and faculty attended the event on Tuesday of last week. Prospective students were able to talk to current students and alumni about their personal experiences in the program and ask MSBA professors any questions they had about the program.
A newspaper article covering the event can be found in last week's edition of The Tower.
Thank you to all our MSBA candidates, current students, alumni and faculty for making this a successful evening!
Read More »
A newspaper article covering the event can be found in last week's edition of The Tower.
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| Current MSBA student Matt Miano answers some questions about the MSBA program |
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| MSBA students Ronnie, Kendall and Patty speak with a prospective MSBA student |
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| Three promising MSBA candidates |
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| Professor Seegers answering some questions |
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| Current MSBA student Paige Pilarski speaks to a prospective student |
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| Vanessa Johnson interviewing MSBA candidates Jonathan Matthews and Adriana Del Castillo |
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| Program Director Stewart McHie greets MSBA alumus Paul Miller |
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| Assistant Dean Phil Brach and Director of Corporate Relations Marykate Kelly speak with prospective students |
Thank you to all our MSBA candidates, current students, alumni and faculty for making this a successful evening!
Monday, March 2, 2015
Indifference to the Dignity of Work
Indifference to the Dignity of Work
Post originally published in the Catholic Standard by Dawn Carpenter.
We have all done it. We have walked past a beggar on the street. We
have purchased groceries from a cashier whose eyes we did not meet. We
have insisted on the least expensive goods available to us. We have been
impatient with a doctor when our appointment time is delayed. Some of
us have even mumbled under our breath about a fussy baby on an airplane.
What do these seemingly disparate scenarios have in common? These are
times when we fail to appreciate the importance of understanding the
dignity inherent in all forms of work.
For those of faith, we understand that God calls each of us in Genesis 2:15—without burden—to till and keep the earth. This is a duty inherent in who we are as mankind created in the image and likeness of God. By our very nature, we share in the process of creation. Each of us is called to work as a duty to God.
Pope Francis reminds us that work is fundamental to the dignity of the human person. He explains that “work ‘anoints’ with dignity, and that dignity is not conferred by one’s ancestry, family life or education. Dignity as such comes solely from work. We eat with what we earn, we support our families with what we earn. It doesn’t matter if it’s a little or a lot. If it’s more, all the better.”
However, without an understanding of the true nature of work, we can be indifferent to our responsibilities as workers and as beneficiaries of the work of others.
What is work?
At a certain level, we all know what work is. We all do it. However, for policy makers and those who study work, the United Nations 19th International Conference of Labour Statisticians has established five mutually exclusive forms of work that can be measured:
We work, and we work.
How should we understand work?
Pope John Paul II, in his Encyclical Letter Laboreum exercens (On Human Work), teaches us that work has three dimensions: subjective, objective and social. Each dimension offers insight on not only what work is but how we should approach it.
As people of faith, we should care about work because it is the mechanism for the provision of our daily bread. Not only does our work sustain us physically, but it also sustains us spiritually. It is clear that our wages provide the resources to physically support us. However, what is more challenging to understand is that our work (and how we accept, respect and support the work of others), is the mechanism that provides for the nourishment of our spirit.
Together, each human person, makes up the Body of Christ. How we interact with each other matters to all of us. Recall the lesson learned in in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30. Each of the three servants is given a portion (an amount based upon his own abilities) of the master’s assets and is entrusted to be a responsible steward. Two of the three follow the master’s instructions and make productive use of the master’s talents. The third, out of fear, hoards the asset and does nothing with it. The first two are praised and rewarded, and the third is scolded, rejected and punished.
God has given mankind the entire world and all its resources and has endowed us with intellect and reason. God expects us to use our “talents” to care for ourselves and our families. This mandate also means using our own work to help others be more productive and to always be vigilant to not disregard or diminish the work of others.
The Sadness of Indifference.
During a recent press conference in anticipation of the 2015 Lenten season, Monsignor Giampietro Dal Toso, under-secretary of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum (One Heart), shared an important message about indifference that is relevant to our understanding of our indifference to the dignity of work. Monsignor Dal Toso explains that “indifference comes from a lack of attention to differences.”
Indifference can be understood on three levels.
As mankind, we have a duty to work and respect the work of others, whether that work has high or low objective value. Its intrinsic value is derived from its nexus to the human person doing the work. Work honors the gifts and talents that we receive from God. We are all called to use these talents in proportion to our abilities and resources for our own care and benefit and for that of others.
We know that, through the introduction of sin, the duty of work is sometimes weighed down by pain and suffering. However, in God’s mercy, we have been given Jesus as the most poignant example of how to use pain and suffering for its redemptive power.
So next time we are annoyed by the crying baby on an airplane, we will remember that we are all God’s children, and that God’s work is perpetual in all of us. Let us imitate the patience of the attentive mother and never be indifferent to the dignity of our brothers and sisters.
Read More »
Post originally published in the Catholic Standard by Dawn Carpenter.
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| Dawn Carpenter |
For those of faith, we understand that God calls each of us in Genesis 2:15—without burden—to till and keep the earth. This is a duty inherent in who we are as mankind created in the image and likeness of God. By our very nature, we share in the process of creation. Each of us is called to work as a duty to God.
Pope Francis reminds us that work is fundamental to the dignity of the human person. He explains that “work ‘anoints’ with dignity, and that dignity is not conferred by one’s ancestry, family life or education. Dignity as such comes solely from work. We eat with what we earn, we support our families with what we earn. It doesn’t matter if it’s a little or a lot. If it’s more, all the better.”
However, without an understanding of the true nature of work, we can be indifferent to our responsibilities as workers and as beneficiaries of the work of others.
What is work?
At a certain level, we all know what work is. We all do it. However, for policy makers and those who study work, the United Nations 19th International Conference of Labour Statisticians has established five mutually exclusive forms of work that can be measured:
- Own-use production work: production of goods and services for our own final use.
- Employment work: work in exchange for pay or profit.
- Unpaid trainee work: work without pay to acquire workplace skills or experience.
- Volunteer work: non-compulsory work performed for others without pay.
- Other work activities: everything else.
We work, and we work.
How should we understand work?
Pope John Paul II, in his Encyclical Letter Laboreum exercens (On Human Work), teaches us that work has three dimensions: subjective, objective and social. Each dimension offers insight on not only what work is but how we should approach it.
- Subjective dimension of work: the work, itself, is considered as an activity of the human person. Laboreum exercens reminds us that “[a]s man, through his work, becomes more and more the master of the earth, and as he confirms his dominion over the visible world, again through his work, he nevertheless remains in every case and at every phase of this process within the Creator’s original ordering. And this ordering remains necessarily and indissolubly linked with the fact that man was created, as male and female, ‘in the image of God’.”
- Objective dimension of work: the person doing the work is the focus of consideration. Irrespective of its lesser or greater objective value, work is an expression of the person doing the work—an actus personae (act of the person). In this way, the human person is the measure of the dignity of work. Laboreum exercens reminds us again that “human work has an ethical value of its own, which clearly and directly remains linked to the fact that the one who carries it out is a person.”
- Social dimension of work: a person’s work is fundamentally connected with that of other people. The fruits of work give rise to opportunities for interaction, relationship and encounter with others. In the Encyclical Letter Centesimus annus (Hundredth Year), Pope John Paul II reminds us that “work is work with others and work for others.”
As people of faith, we should care about work because it is the mechanism for the provision of our daily bread. Not only does our work sustain us physically, but it also sustains us spiritually. It is clear that our wages provide the resources to physically support us. However, what is more challenging to understand is that our work (and how we accept, respect and support the work of others), is the mechanism that provides for the nourishment of our spirit.
Together, each human person, makes up the Body of Christ. How we interact with each other matters to all of us. Recall the lesson learned in in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30. Each of the three servants is given a portion (an amount based upon his own abilities) of the master’s assets and is entrusted to be a responsible steward. Two of the three follow the master’s instructions and make productive use of the master’s talents. The third, out of fear, hoards the asset and does nothing with it. The first two are praised and rewarded, and the third is scolded, rejected and punished.
God has given mankind the entire world and all its resources and has endowed us with intellect and reason. God expects us to use our “talents” to care for ourselves and our families. This mandate also means using our own work to help others be more productive and to always be vigilant to not disregard or diminish the work of others.
The Sadness of Indifference.
During a recent press conference in anticipation of the 2015 Lenten season, Monsignor Giampietro Dal Toso, under-secretary of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum (One Heart), shared an important message about indifference that is relevant to our understanding of our indifference to the dignity of work. Monsignor Dal Toso explains that “indifference comes from a lack of attention to differences.”
Indifference can be understood on three levels.
- Interpersonal Level: here is where a lack of attention to the difference between the other and myself conforms the other to my parameters and thus destroys him. This is the scenario where the beggar is expected to just get up and get a job—without regard for his mental and physical health, level of education or even whether or not he has an inadequate support system.
- Cultural Level: here is where there is a lack of awareness or an incomplete observance of values. This is the scenario where we are so “busy” during our shopping transaction that we do not offer a smile or kind word to the cashier whose “menial” job does not rise to the level of the importance of our conscience. But still worse are those scenarios where a lack of judgment on values (where every option is viable and anything goes) leads to the sweatshops and child labor that produces the inexpensive goods that we consume and demand.
- Metaphysical Level: here is where there is a lack of attention to the difference between God and man—Creator and creature. We believe that we are God. Here is the scenario where we lose our temper when and where we are not served as we demand.
As mankind, we have a duty to work and respect the work of others, whether that work has high or low objective value. Its intrinsic value is derived from its nexus to the human person doing the work. Work honors the gifts and talents that we receive from God. We are all called to use these talents in proportion to our abilities and resources for our own care and benefit and for that of others.
We know that, through the introduction of sin, the duty of work is sometimes weighed down by pain and suffering. However, in God’s mercy, we have been given Jesus as the most poignant example of how to use pain and suffering for its redemptive power.
So next time we are annoyed by the crying baby on an airplane, we will remember that we are all God’s children, and that God’s work is perpetual in all of us. Let us imitate the patience of the attentive mother and never be indifferent to the dignity of our brothers and sisters.
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