Hi, my name is Bob Albright, I'm chair of the Business Management Department here at the University of New Haven. I'm looking forward to just chatting with you a bit to tell you about why I think the Business Management degree is an excellent choice for anybody who wants to do well and establish themselves in a business career. So this is me, I'm from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I went to the University of Pittsburgh for my Ph.D. and my MBA. I originally went to the Coast Guard Academy, where I also majored in management, business management. I never ever regretted that decision. It's an exciting field. It's a field that is highly competitive, and a lot of fun, in addition as a way to make a good amount of money.
So why should you go Business Management for your degree? What Business Management is all about is teaching you how to lead, plan, organize, and direct the activities of an organization. You have to lead people. You have to organize resources. You have to direct different activities so that your company wins in the marketplace. It's all about achieving competitive advantage. You can get your degree in Business Management and there's plenty of room you have plenty of credits available to allow you to also get a concentration in another discipline or a minor in another discipline. Many students here get a Bachelor of Science in Business Management, and then have a minor in another discipline such as Marketing or Accounting or Finance.
Most importantly, I think it leads you to a wide variety of job opportunities. We don't know who's going to be hiring four years from now when you graduate. We don't know what industries will be hot and which industries will be not. But this particular degree is very flexible. Everyone knows what a Business Management major has studied. And it makes you very viable as a candidate for a wide variety of roles and responsibilities in a wide variety of organizations and industries.
It is a rigorous education, you'll learn fundamental business principles as well as analytical and technical logic, knowledge. We try to put you in the position of someone who has to have a strategic viewpoint someone at the very top of the organization. So you think about global considerations. You think about how you integrate the various business disciplines in a way again, that allows you to achieve a competitive advantage. Importantly, we talk about social responsibility and the ethical dimensions of all of your decision-making. Lastly, we want you to be able to communicate, collaborate with others on a team, and continually self-improve yourself. These soft skills, communication, teamwork, the ability to learn to be an active learner, continuous learner, are incredibly important, and they are what employers are looking for when they hire young people today.
This slide is a busy slide and I only show it to you for one reason. Here on the bottom of the slide, you can see the red arrow that says you have a number of free electives. This again gives you the flexibility to have a minor or to have a concentration, or even conceivably a double major, we have many students who do that. So, again, you will have an advisor that will lead you through the curriculum, they'll tell you what to take first, what to take second, they will ask you about your career interests, and then guide you to courses that will facilitate you achieving your objectives in terms of a particular discipline or an industry. Again, it looks complex, it could even look scary to you, you'll be guided through the curriculum. We'll take the basic courses first and then you'll fleet up to courses of greater complexity that will help you achieve your personal objectives.
We have internships that we provide to our students and we support our students. In fact, we require internships. Many students take two internships. Some take three. I even know of one student who has a is taking his fourth internship and has already landed a job down in New York City on Wall Street. He's gonna be making more money than who knows, a few years from now. But, again, wonderful learning opportunity. We put you in contact with businesses for more dough as freshmen. You'll be writing a business plan and having it reviewed by business professionals. As a senior, you'll do a consulting project for a major business or industry. You will help them solve one of their problems a real problem for a real business. This also has led to employment opportunities in many cases.
There's opportunity for independent studies to allow you to really focus. If you're motivated and want to study abroad, you can do that as well. If you want to work with a nonprofit organization and learn by working with them, we have that opportunity we call that, "service learning." And we have a number of active learning activities you can engage in. We basically want you to learn by doing. We also want you to network. We bring in guest speakers. We bring in very, very accomplished alumni. We take you on business field trips. There are a number of student clubs and organizations that will help you acquire a peer network that will stay with you for decades.
We're going to help you get into an internship with a great organization. You'll recognize organizations from the defense industry here, the insurance industry, the financial services, industry, power companies, universities, etc. Tech companies-- we have a student -- we have a couple of students working at Apple right now. Our graduates working at Apple right now. So again, we want to facilitate internships. We want to facilitate you landing jobs for the Fortune 500 organizations as well as smaller organizations, family-owned organizations, we even have a number of students starting their own businesses.
That's what the business management degree can do for you. And that's what makes us as teachers exceptionally happy is when we see you doing exceptionally well in whatever industry or field you choose. Here's a recent kind of graduate testimonial, Eric Pecks now down at the investment bank, JP Morgan, one of our strongest investment banks in the in the Navy and the world for that matter. He was a Business Management major with a minor in Marketing and was exceptionally active on the baseball team and our Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. But here's just a little quote from him. "Without my internship, it's safe to say wouldn't be where I am today. I also have to thank my advisor and other staff members at the University of New Haven for their guidance and help."
His story is not unlike many that graduate from the University of New Haven. Here's a recent graduate Kies Law. Kies Law is now working at Sikorsky her major was Business Management and she had a Quant minor. She was exceptionally active in a number of clubs, as you can see, including being Vice President of our Management and Human Resources Club, which is a major club that we have here housed within the business management major that engages with a wide variety of organizations in the local area. Here's what Kies Law says, "I didn't want my major to be so specific. So I decided to opt for Business Management with a minor in Quantitative Analysis. I do not regret my decision at all. It's brought many blessings my way and it's led me to be a senior with an accepted job offer at Sikorsky."
These stories aren't uncommon. Darrell Singletary our Program Director for the MBA also happens to be a member of the Business Management Department. Darrell is a great guy to have in the department for if you're interested in the 3+1 program or the 4+1 program that you probably heard Dean Kench refer to, he's the guy to talk to. You'll want to talk to them early so that you take the courses you need to make that an easy transition from a Business Management degree to also include an MBA.
If I had you here with me, I'd have a couple of students and I'd have all kinds of questions about anything and everything the local nightlife, what their students do at night, how the food is, how the professors are, etc. but we can set you up to talk with our students at any point in time, and that's why I wanted to put this particular slide up if you contact me, I'm on the New Haven website ralbright@newhaven.edu. That's my email. I'd be happy to answer any further questions you might have or set you up with some of our students, and so that you can get the student perspective. So please don't be a stranger. I look forward to meeting you at some point, and we'll talk to you before too long.