The Economy of Communion

The MSBA class had the privilege of spending an evening with Nick Sanna, CEO of RiskLens and a School of Business and Economics founding Advisory Board member. Nick acquainted the class with the Economy of Communion, a movement of like-minded business leaders that stress a culture of giving rather than just simply philanthropy. Building upon the well –known Proverb “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”, the EoC movement preaches that we as people should strive to fish with the man to build a relationship of communion and treat the poverty-stricken as valuable and contributing members of society, not objects of poverty.

Nick also spoke about the importance of living in communion in terms of business. This means building relationships with clients based on respect for human dignity and asking ourselves how we want to relate to the community around us. He encouraged the class to build a "culture code" and to ask themselves if they live out core Christian values and spread and inspire communion.

"You all have plenty to give", Nick told the cohort. "The more you give, the more you are given. Everyday is a chance for another encounter and a chance to join the economy of communion".

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Lessons Learned in the MSBA

Wondering what the annual New York Trip was like through the eyes of a student? MSBA student Victoria Lee lets us in on her experience.

Market Your Strengths

Nov 13, 2015

The New York trip was one of the most rewarding, tiring, and fun-filled weeks I have ever experienced. Being able to bond with my classmates and leaders in the program, confirmed that I made the right decision in continuing my studies at Catholic. Every speech and every visit to the companies shared the same sentiment. While there were several terms and concepts from class, like the marketing mix, process, the importance of social media, the biggest theme I got from all the companies was marketing yourself. Building your own brand and being marketable to different fields, was the largest marketing aspect of the trip. Every company mentioned the importance of being genuine, being inquisitive, and being a team player, are all elements vital to the different marketing industries and marketing yourself. Building on your strengths and marketing these strengths are extremely important. For example, I learned that companies like DDB and Interbrand are keen on teamwork and collaboration. Throughout my undergraduate career, Sociology was crucial on seminar type classes, as well as in the MSBA courses, teamwork is everything. These elements are crucial to working at companies like this and I definitely want to be able to advertise these strengths when I apply to jobs in the very near future.
To further the point of marketing on your strengths, it made me reflect a lot on the skills I learned from my undergraduate career, and the abundant skills we are learning from the MSBA program. The core of sociology is understanding human interaction, being able to adapt to different cultural differences, understanding people’s thought process. These skills would help me in being able to work in a team as well as if I want to have a career in marketing, I can build on these skills. The skills I learned from my undergraduate career are being amplified and magnetized in the MSBA program. In our marketing and management courses, we learn in a seminar style and have discussions that allow us to voice our opinion, while being open to other people’s opinion. We are also able to collaborate on different case studies and class project, which I learned on the trip, is vital to marketing. Teamwork is also extremely prevalent in our accounting and quantitative courses, these courses are not my strongest courses, but getting help from my classmates has been great. I learned at the different advertising companies, that even if you have an area that is not your strong suit, you can get input from your co-workers and teammates. The skills I learned from my undergraduate and graduate career, are skills I want to market when I start applying to jobs.
Marketing yourself and marketing your skills, are all lessons I learned from the New York trip and in class. The importance of being genuine and inquisitive are both prevalent in class and when we were listening to the different speaker’s speeches. Marketing was present during the entire trip.

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How My Liberal Arts Degree is Helping Me in Graduate School: Blog Series part IV

We're back! Welcome to the latest installment of our blog series, How My Liberal Arts Degree is Helping Me in Graduate School. If you happened to miss the first few posts, you can catch up here:

Music to Management: Finding a Career from an "Impractical" Major
English, a Major of Adaptability
Studying History: Storytelling in the Office 

In this post, we welcome MSBA student Clare Fallon who received her Bachelor's degree in History with a minor in Secondary Education. In her post, she talks about how she will use the skills learned during her undergraduate career in her time with the MSBA program as a graduate student in business. Take it away, Clare!

From Classroom Manager to Business Manager

Sep 25, 2015

It’s 8:40 am and I am standing outside of my classroom waiting for my students to hustle up the hallway and get settled into their seats for a day filled with math, english, social studies and fun! Well, at least I tried to make learning fun. Although I am not in the teaching profession, my major and experience has taught me so much that I believe can carry over into the business world. The most important aspect that would seamlessly fit into my new found business lifestyle would be my classroom management skills. In any given class period, I would have about 25 students in my classroom. I had to make sure that my students were involved, engaged, not wasting their time, keeping up with the expectations of the classroom, and comfortable to ask questions to be able to complete their work. This article by edutopia discusses tips for fostering a positive classroom management style. While reading it, it occurred to me that these tips can be applied to business management style as well. To me, a teacher is the ultimate business manager. As a manager, you have to make sure your co-workers are engaged, not wasting their (or your) time, keeping up with the expectations of their job as well as company culture, and comfortable enough to ask you questions. Hopefully one day at 8:40 am, with help from my classroom management skills, I’ll be standing outside my office waiting for my co-workers to hustle up the elevator and get settled into their desks for a day filled with hard work, determination, and of course…fun!

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The Formula For Success

In the post below, MSBA student Eve Zhu uses knowledge she learned in her Quantitative Analysis class to come up with a "function for success". (If you've missed our previous student guest posts, read them here, here and here).

 Take it away, Eve!

What Does Success Look Like to Me?

Nov 13, 2015

What does success look like to me? I read an interesting article about success a period of time ago. The author, Geoffrey James, stated his definition of success. While a lot of people think that success should be defined as the left chart, he think a much more sensible definition of success is as the middle chart.
However, for many more people, I think success is the right chart. So the following question is what makes people rich and happy?  After thinking about this question, I found the following success metrics from Harvard Business Review.
For fun and curiosity, I tried to use regression to explain the relationship between the four categories and success. I used sixty-two business leaders’ answers online and my four roommate’s answers as the sample to run a regression model. People think these business leaders are successful, so 1 represents success and 0 represents not success. ABCD represent four categories and each item in each category represents one point.
After several tests, I got a function: Success = -0.052 + 0.156*A + 0.070*B + 0.023*C + 0.074*D and R^2=0.797. The career objective, which can represent rich, is still the most important index of success. It is really true in today’s society. In my opinion, the other three categories can represent the “happy” section in the middle chart above. Success involves both riches and happiness.
This is what success looks like to me.

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MSBA meets NYC: Recap Part 2

If you missed our first recap post, read it here!

The last few days of our trip were nothing short of incredible. We visited more amazing companies and spoke to inspiring business leaders and entrepreneurs. We hope you enjoy this second picture recap!

Our first stop Thursday morning was to Creative Drive, where Paul Price, CEO gave the class an overview of the company and culture.

After a wonderful visit at Creative Drive, we stopped for lunch in the city before heading to our next stop, Carat. We were so thankful to be addressed by Ed Gorman, EVP and Managing Director, Linda Cronin, Senior VP, and our very own MSBA alumn Winfred Amoako, Associate of Digital Activation and Planning.

Our next visit was to Jefferies. We are so thankful to them for hosting us, and especially to Peter Forlenza for leading our group session!



We finished out a packed Thursday with a relaxed dinner with Beth Warren of Creative Realities, Inc, during which she gave students an overview of the company and what they do.



Friday morning began with a visit to Madison Square Garden, where we were hosted by the always-gracious Adam Sciorsci.


Our final stop was to the office of Made by Many, hosted by Leslie Bradshaw.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip, and we want to again extend our extreme gratitude to all of the companies that hosted our group. We can't wait for next year!

Stay tuned for our next blog post, which will feature a little project we've been working on!

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Empowering Women Enrtrepreneurs at CUA

Cross-posted on Business@CUA

By Guest Blogger: Julie Larkin CUA, Student Experience Manager , MSBA Graduate, and Founder of Girl Talk.

"Julie, what are you talking about? You just started a business!" I took a minute to ponder this, and then slowly allowed the realization to sink in.

I had just finished explaining to Stew McHie, the director of the Masters of Science in Business Analysis Program at Catholic University, how I had never pictured myself in business. I detailed my experiences studying psychology and working in Campus Ministry as a student minister. Surely my vocation was counseling or something that involved directly caring for others. I never imagined that my life would have anything to do with crunching numbers all day. (Little did I know what business as a "force for good" actually meant!)

I then went on to describe to him the program that I had started during my time as a student minister, called Girl Talk. This organization began in March 2012, after some jarring experiences with my freshmen female residents involving attempted suicide, sexual assault, heartbreak, and eating disorders. I heard story after story from these women of loneliness and their struggles with self-worth. No one will ever love me. She's way prettier than I am. I can't even look in the mirror I'm so ugly. Sound familiar? It broke my heart to hear them beating themselves up and doubting their self-worth to the point of self-harm. These women believed that they were the only ones who had ever felt like that, but they needed to know that they were not alone...Enter Girl Talk.

It took a lot of late nights of planning and crafting. My friends helped me design tons of cute invitations with glitter and bows, late nights of baking, music playlists and all sorts of prep in between. We gathered all my residents together for a fun night of hanging out in the lounge, devouring Red Velvet cupcakes, and most importantly, sharing stories. I shared with them the times that I felt ugly, heartbroken, and just simply not good enough. I shared how there were so many times that I felt inadequate, that my friends had felt this way too—that everyone struggles with their self-worth in some way! I reminded them that in fact, they were each beautiful, valuable, and loved. No matter what.

At the end of the night, the girls would not let me leave until I told them when our next Girl Talk would be. They were so hungry for this message! To know that someone they looked up to struggled as well. To know they were not alone. So we got together again and we talked about body image. Then we got together again and we talked about relationships. We kept getting together to share our personal stories and continue the conversation. The next year my fellow student ministers asked me if I could help them start Girl Talk in their residence halls, and by the end of the following year, Girl Talk existed in every female residence hall on Catholic University’s campus.

Back to Mr. Business. I finished explaining this whole history of Girl Talk, and then Professor McHie gave me a huge smile, and shared this little secret with me—I had inadvertently created a business without even realizing it! My passion for these women in helping them recognize their self-worth had fueled the flame for an organization that had the potential to reach women far and wide beyond my expectations! I may not have been looking to make a profit necessarily, but I still needed to understand the essential business principles of management, marketing, finance, and accounting in order for Girl Talk to grow and succeed. So how would I help women? 

Girl Talk Launch Party Invite

I went to Business School! After an accelerated nine-month program, I received my masters of science in business analysis (MSBA). I not only learned these invaluable, practical skills that complemented and enhanced my background of psychology and ministry, I found that I actually really enjoyed them. Business was a natural fit for me because it involved working with people, building relationships, and thinking creatively to solve problems. I am so grateful for that eye-opening conversation I had with Stew McHie. Thanks to him, I now have a business degree, am working in the School of Business and Economics as the Student Experience Manager, and am launchied my 501c3 non-profit, Girl Talk on November 13th . 

So many women will now have the opportunity to recognize their self-worth and become their best selves, thanks to this discovery of business as my vocation. 

I guess business really can be a force for good.

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Annual MSBA meets NYC Trip: Recap Part 1

The MSBA program's annual week-long trip to New York City is one of the experiences that sets it apart.

The class of 2016 boarded a train at DC's Union Station and headed for New York to visit companies in a variety of industries and broaden our students awareness of the kinds of industries and opportunities that are available to them. 

Each company and speaker was incredibly gracious in sharing their time, personal experiences, backgrounds and career paths with the students. They provided valuable insight and advice to our students on searching for jobs.

In Part 1 of our recap, you can see pictures of our visits to DDB, Interbrand, Tiffany & Co. and Fox Business News. You'll also read more about the networking event held at Public House.

An annual tradition - a beer at the Blarney Rock Pub across the street from the Hotel Penn upon arrival to NYC!

Day 1 - our morning brief before visiting DDB. The Student Planning Committee organized and led these meetings each morning before the day's activities.

Program Director Stew McHie preps the students

On our way to DDB!

We spent our first day at DDB Worldwide, where MSBA alumn Patrick Six led the day's activities. We had the privilege (and last minute surprise!) of hearing from DDB Worldwide chairman Keith Reinhard. Mr. Reinhard spent time sharing stories with the class and giving them advice on pursuing their careers.

An important part of our annual trip is the networking reception, held this year at Public House.  Over 50 MSBA alumni, CUA alums, company hosts, and friends and colleagues that live in the city were in attendace and shared their experiences with some of the students that are interested in seeking work in NYC. 

MSBA students with Tiffany & Co.'s Michael Connolly

Stew McHie with MSBA alumn Winfred Amoako

Day 2 began bright and early at Interbrand. Pictured here are a few students with the MSBA Program Director Stew McHie and Director of Career Development Marykate Kelly.

At Interbrand, students had the opportunity to work on a case-study for. Students split up into separate groups, came up with a strategy and presented it at the end of our visit.

MSBA student Adriana Del Castillo leads her group in brainstorming

MSBA student Alex Hetzel presents his team's solution

Alissa Norris did a great job summarizing her team's strategy!

Stop number two was Tiffany & Company! And it wasn't just the girls who were excited! We heard from Vice President - Treasurer Michael Connolly, a CUA alumn, and Bernadette Hitt, the Group Director of Merchandising for the Americas, who was also a CUA alumna.

Michael Connolly, a CUA alumn and Vice President - Treasurer for Tiffany &Co.

Our last stop of the day was a Fox Business News. As always, Josh Bellis gave us an amazing overview of what working at FBN entails, and gave a grand tour of the place! Always a highlight of the trip, speaking with Gerri Willis of Fox Business Network, pictured below.

We ended day 2 with a fun-filled evening and another annual tradition - bowling in Times Square!
Stay tuned for Part 2 of the trip, coming later this week!

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