The First Year Seminar (FYS) courses (BADM 1101) are offered each fall semester and are designed for first-year students, including sophomore external transfer students, enrolled in Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. With a variety of options from which to select, students explore unique topics that range from does finance benefit society and the intersection of global leadership and public policy to heroes and villains, future of work, and the impact of individual differences in the workplace affecting performance. Unique aspects of the FYS courses are:
• Enrollment in each seminar is limited to 20 students, and prior knowledge of business or topics covered in the FYS courses is not necessary.
• The small class size allows students to develop a mentoring relationship with their faculty, embrace learning through seminar-based lectures, and engage in discussions with their peers.
• Each FYS course fulfills Georgetown University’s integrated writing requirement with an emphasis on strengthening students’ academic and business writing skills.
• All FYS students participate in programming and activities outside of the classroom that lead to building community and connections.
Georgetown University McDonough School of Business FIRST YEAR SEMINAR PROGRAM
THE FIRST YEAR SOCIAL IMPACT CONSULTING PROJECT
FYS students will have the opportunity to work with a local or international nonprofit organization and complete a Social Impact Consulting Project (SICP). Working in teams, the project allows students to develop strategic solutions that address current business challenges facing the organization. Faculty and advanced undergraduates coach each team, and finalists present their strategic recommendations to executives from the client organization.
The SICP also helps students develop and grow in a number of ways that are fundamental to Georgetown McDonough’s approach to learning. More specifically, through the projects, FYS students will develop:
• Knowledge about local and global organizations and the special challenges they face — operationally, culturally, financially, ethically, and strategically;
• Comfort levels with complexity, ambiguity, and uncertainty;
• An ability to structure open-ended, crossfunctional problems and solutions;
• Skills researching, analyzing, synthesizing, and articulating;
• Understanding of project definition, scoping, and management skills;
• The ability to operate as a high-performing self-managed team, using its diverse members’ strengths well; and
• Critical thinking and communications skills (written and oral, planned and impromptu).
FYS LECTURE SERIES
Students from each section meet as a cohort several times during the semester. Students receive a business challenge from a nonprofit organization and learn about the importance of the nonprofit sector and its role in both the social and economic welfare of communities. Additionally, students attend a faculty lecture highlighting how to help solve client’s problems and effective ways to communicate solutions.
NONPROFIT PARTNER
Previous nonprofit partners have included DC Central Kitchen, So Others Might Eat (SOME), HOPE Worldwide South Africa, Martha’s Table, Evidence Action, 11th Street Bridge Park, and the Anacostia Business Improvement District Corporation.
HOW TO REGISTER
Registration for the Fall 2025 semester is available on July 25 for the incoming first-year students and on July 24 for sophomore transfer students. You can review all the available options for the fall courses on the Schedule of Classes and select one that most interests you and challenges your thinking.
CONTACT INFORMATION
For questions related to the FYS program, please contact msbundergrad@georgetown.edu. If you need help with course registration, please contact your academic dean.
FIRST YEAR SEMINAR OPTIONS
Cooking the Books: The Ethics of Financial Reporting
Kirsten Anderson
Selected Readings:S
We will discuss the impact of ethical (and unethical) financial reporting from the perspective of the major stakeholders – management, shareholders, and regulators. In addition, we will discuss the differences between the U.S. system and other systems around the world. We start the course by learning about Enron and WorldCom and the impact these two accounting fraud cases had on current regulations – especially the SarbanesOxley Act. We also will discuss the behavior of these corporate leaders, what they did right and wrong, and use what we learn to analyze issues in financial reporting today.
The course also will have at least two guest speakers – one from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and a litigation consultant involved in accounting fraud cases.
Cynthia Cooper, Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journal of a Corporate Whistleblower | Paul Healy and Krishna Palepu, The Fall of Enron | V.G. Narayanan, Market and Regulatory Institutions | Popular press articles about financial reporting ethics and regulatory agencies around the globe.
Digital Finance and Fintech in Africa: Advancing Financial Empowerment
This seminar explores how digital finance and fintech are expanding access to financial services across Africa. We’ll look at real-world tools like Kenya’s M-Pesa, digital lending apps, and platforms like Flutterwave that make it easier to send and receive money. We’ll examine how these innovations are helping people save, borrow, and start businesses—especially in places where banks are hard to reach. Along the way, we’ll ask big questions about poverty and development: Can technology reduce inequality? What challenges remain? Using Barbara Minto’s Pyramid Principle, you’ll build strong, logical arguments and improve your writing through feedback and revision. By the end, you’ll not only understand how fintech is shaping Africa’s future—you’ll be better at making persuasive, real-world arguments of your own.
Selected Readings and Videos:
Mhlanga, D. (2022). Digital Financial Inclusion: Revisiting Poverty Theories in the Context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. | Barbara Minto, The Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing and Thinking - recommended for understanding strategic structuring of arguments. Fintech, Blockchain, and the Upgrade of the Global Payments Systems│Bruce Tuckman (NYU Stern) | Inclusive Fintech Forum 2025: Innovation for a Digital Future | Focus On Impact Africa: Digital Payments Growth in Africa (2025)
Anthony Annan
FIRST YEAR SEMINAR OPTIONS
Heroes and Villains: Character and Leadership in a Global Context
Selected Readings:
Heroes and villains are not just characters found in comic books and movies. Heroes are real people who inspire us because of their courageous actions. Villains are real people who we criticize, even condemn, because of the wrongdoing and harm of their actions. This seminar will examine the constructs of heroes and villains as central to understanding character and leadership in a global context. A goal of this seminar is to help prepare you for your “hero’s journey” in life.
Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces | Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov | Christopher Marlowe, Dr. Faustus with The English Faust Book | Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Selected Films: Black Panther | The Dark Knight | The Devil Wears Prada
Ambition: Finding Greatness
Selected Readings:
Do you want to be the best? Why? And what does it take? Are your goals the right ones? Should you change the world or yourself? How would you know? This class investigates ambition from multiple angles. We’ll look practically at what it takes to succeed—skills like time management, dealing with people, and developing conscientiousness. But we’ll also critically examine ambition’s pitfalls: how it relates to the Dark Triad, why it leads some to lie or exploit others, and how chasing status becomes a zero-sum game. The goal is to help each of us become the best version of ourselves, in the best sense of “best.”
David Foster Wallace, This Is Water | Angela Duckworth, Grit | Alain de Botton, Why You Will Marry the Wrong Person | Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich | Betsey Stevenson, The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness
Jason Brennan
Robert J. Bies
FIRST YEAR SEMINAR OPTIONS
The Real Estate Game
Real estate is the single largest asset class in the world and incorporates nearly every field of business. Decisions associated with how real estate is developed, managed, and disposed have meaningful implications for our society and necessitates an understanding by today’s business student. This seminar contemplates various dimensions of real estate from the localized nature of an individual acquisition or development to the global capital flows that seek to invest in the asset class. Students will develop a strong understanding of real estate and the various aspects of the field that result in the built environment. The course also will focus on the development and history of Washington, D.C., a leading global real estate market, and include a number of property tours throughout the city.
Prominent guest speakers from the real estate industry will be featured, as well as McDonough undergraduates who have obtained real estate internships and fulltime positions.
Selected Readings:
William J. Poorvu, The Real Estate Game | A number of current industry-focused papers are incorporated into the course.
Does Finance Benefit Society?
Selected Readings:
Anyone considering a career in the finance industry should know that people are suspicious about finance. This negative feeling is even shared by finance experts. Throughout the semester, we will explore the causes for this rancor against one of the fastest-growing economic sectors of the past 50 years. We will learn about this debate from the perspective of finance academics and professionals, as well as from the Catholic and Jesuit tradition that informs Georgetown’s identity. Because money is ubiquitous, finance is an ideal setting to study the global nature of business. Students in this class will have to think at the scale of both the local and the world economy. Our readings, discussions and assignments aim at making each of you expertly informed financial managers who work for the common good.
Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Vocation of the Business Leader: A Reflection| J. Tirole and S. Rendall, Economics for the Common Good | Luigi Zingales, Does Finance Benefit Society | Luigi Zingales, 2014 Presidential Address to the American Finance Association | Paul Almeida, Why a 16th-Century Saint is a Model of Modern Management? | R. Shiller, Finance and the Good Society | Michael Watkins, The First 90 Days: Critical Strategies for New Leaders in Business and Government
Fr. Quentin Dupont, S.J
Matthew Cypher and Ferdinando Monte
FIRST YEAR SEMINAR OPTIONS
Marketing in a Connected World
Ronald Goodstein
Selected Readings:
In a connected world, global marketing is no longer reserved for only the richest and largest people/companies. In a connected world, products are available to everyone, ads are global whether they intend to be or not, distribution is worldwide, and price comparisons are possible with just a click. This course explores the requirements necessary for marketing executives to succeed in this global, connected environment. In a connected world, the successful marketing executive needs to understand, choose, create, communicate, capture, and deliver value. Students will learn to analyze customer markets, organize the company around championing the customer, and know how to beat the competition in the newly connected world.
Nick Mavrick, Contrarian Marketing | Robert Cialdini, Pre-suasion | Tybout and Calder, Kellogg on Branding in a Hyper-Connected World | W. Chan Kim, Blue Ocean Strategy
Selected Films: Thank You for Smoking | The Founder | The Story of Content: Rise of the New Marketing
Psychology of Big Data
Jennifer Logg
Data analytics needs psychology. “Big data” is changing how society functions and how people make decisions. The rise of big data has increased both the availability and utility of a new source of advice: algorithms. But organizations cannot realize the full potential of big data and their algorithms until they understand how people respond to information generated by algorithms and how to generate analyses that are more fair and less biased. In this class, you will class leverage academic scholarship to solve real-world problems by taking a psychological perspective to the field of data analytics, the Psychology of Big Data. We will cover three main themes, 1) The Promise of Algorithms, 2) The Problem with Algorithms, and 3) Balancing Algorithmic and Human Judgment.
Selected Readings, Podcasts, and Ted Talks: Schrage, What a Minor League Moneyball Reveals About Predictive Analytics | John, Ever suffered from selfie regret? | Lakhani, How Generative AI Changes Productivity | Kushlev and Leitao, Effects of smartphones on well-being | Zaki et al., It’s time to teach empathy and trust with the same rigor as we teach coding | Kahneman, How to Overcome the High, Hidden Cost of Inconsistent Decision Making
FIRST YEAR SEMINAR OPTIONS
Bridging the Divide: Leading Across Business, Government, and Society
Nicholas Lovegrove
Selected Readings:
How do we solve society’s most vexing problems, such as healthcare, education, climate change, and income inequality? Experience suggests it cannot be by isolating ourselves in hermetically sealed silos – business, government, and civil society. Instead we need leaders who can move comfortably in a tri-sector world – people who can bridge the divide of culture, motivation, and purpose that separates the three sectors. This seminar examines the challenges and opportunities of leading across business, government, and civil society – especially at the intersection of all three. It explores some of the most important ethical, moral, and practical challenges of leadership. Students will explore what it takes to become a “tri-sector leader” – able to navigate an increasingly interconnected world.
Hank Paulson, On the Brink | Michael Lewis, The Fifth Risk | Michael Watkins, The First 90 Days: Critical Strategies for New Leaders in Business and Government | Nitin Nohria et al., In Their Times: The Greatest Business Leaders of the 20th Century | Ron Chernow, selections from Alexander Hamilton and George Washington | Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas, selections from The Wise Men
Data, Technology, and Critical Thinking in the Digital World
Gregory Lyon
Selected Readings:
Data and digital technology have reshaped how we communicate with friends, family, and colleagues, how we consume goods and services in the economy, how we learn about current events around the world, how leaders approach risk and uncertainty in global business, and much more. Where did these technologies come from? What are the ethical implications of new technologies? Are there any tradeoffs associated with technological development? How can we critically assess the value of new and emerging technologies and usefulness of data? This course examines these questions and more as students learn to think critically about past and emerging technologies and refine their analytical skills to be successful in a vibrant digital world.
Alan Turing, Computing Machinery and Intelligence | Brian Merchant, The One: The Secret History of the iPhone | David Sax, The Soul of an Entrepreneur | Cal Newport, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World | Sarah Frier: No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram Selected Films: The Inventor | The Social Dilemma
FIRST YEAR SEMINAR OPTIONS
Psychology at Work: Individual Differences, Teamwork & Workplace Outcomes
If you were choosing a leader or someone to work with (for your club, team, company, or new venture), which individual differences would matter most and why? This seminar will focus on how people differ in systematic ways and how those differences affect their performance at work and school. We will cover topics such as personality, risk tolerance, values, work styles, grit, resilience, curiosity, creativity, humility, self-awareness, EQ, multitasking, generational differences, global mindset, and more. You also will choose one workplace psychology topic that’s personally meaningful to you – exploring what science has to say about the topic and how it might affect your future in school, work, and everyday life.
Selected Readings and Podcasts:
Scholarly and general press chapters and articles by people like Timothy Judge (Does It Pay to be Smart, Attractive, or Confident?) | Malcolm Gladwell (Outliers and Personality Plus) | Adam Grant (Say Goodbye to MBTI) | Susan Cain (The Power of Introverts) | Angela Duckworth (Self-Control and Grit), etc. Articles from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, New Yorker, and academic journals. Podcasts such as Hidden Brain and Freakonomics
Entrepreneurship and the Jesuit Tradition
Reid
Selected Readings:
This seminar will explore how the history, teachings, and philosophies of the Jesuits intersect with the subject of entrepreneurship. The course invites you to think critically about important questions regarding entrepreneurship, including: What is an entrepreneur? What role do entrepreneurs play in the economy? How have Jesuits been entrepreneurial throughout their history? What does it take to encourage entrepreneurship in a modern economy? What are some of the moral challenges entrepreneurs face? How do they, and how should they, meet these challenges? We will discuss how entrepreneurs are among the main agents of change in a modern, global economy and confront the responsibilities that come with being such.
Andrew Yang, Smart People Should Build Things | Chris Lowney, Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-YearOld Company That Changed the World | Hoffman and Casnocha, The Start-Up of You
Michael O’Leary
Jeff
FIRST YEAR SEMINAR OPTIONS
The Future of Work
When most of you graduate, you will begin managing your careers under immeasurably different circumstances from your parents. Your experience will also dramatically differ from classmates who graduated just a decade before you. Remote working, artificial intelligence, data-driven recruitment and performance analysis, and the increasing power of social networks—these are examples of phenomena that will amplify or attenuate your professional trajectories, depending on your ability to understand them. No matter where you work, you will be asked to harness these developments in order to address Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion challenges that organizations have grappled with for decades. For example, what is the source of the gender wage gap, and how can it be eliminated? What is the fairest and most effective way for professional service firms to hire college graduates?What are the consequences of remote work, and are they distributed evenly? Are resources allocated to new businesses fairly, and if not, how should this be addressed?
Selected Readings:
Lauren Rivera, Pedigree: How Elite Students Get Jobs | Caroline Criado Perez, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men | Ta-Nehisi Coates, The First White President | John Carryrou, Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in Silicon Valley | Eliot Sherman, Discretionary Remote Working Helps Mothers Without Hurting Non-Mothers: Evidence From a Field Experiment
Consumer Influence and Autonomy in the Digital Marketplace
Selected Readings:
This seminar explores how companies use convenience, personalization, experiential rewards, and incentives to shape consumer choices and consolidate market power. Through readings, case discussions, and writing assignments, we will learn to harness digital tools to enhance autonomy instead of diminishing it. Key themes include maintaining market boundaries, identifying trustworthy providers, and evaluating the net impact of consumer relationships. As budding managers, participants will develop essential insights and skills for thoughtful product management in the digital age.
Cal Newport, Digital Minimalism | Jenny O’Dell, How to Do Nothing | John K. Galbraith, The Dependence Effect | Luc Wathieu, You Might Want This
