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Every fall, a new crop of students leave the comforts of home and show up on college campuses around the country. The experience is often fraught with a mixture of excitement, anxiety, and anticipation. And that’s just the parents. Students have their own set of adjustments to make. Many are away from home and their parents for the first time in their lives. Having mom do laundry and fix their favorite foods now only happens on semester break. Freshmen are faced with new choices, new decisions, and new people. They must now rely on alarm clocks and often sheer willpower to pull themselves out of bed and get to class on time—if at all. There are roommates from hell and roommates that become lifelong friends. Whatever the situation, freshmen face a period of adjustment both academically and personally. Loyola’s College of Business addresses that period of adjustment in a variety of ways.
The Loyola College of Business Approach The College of Business’ approach is to get the students involved in the college from the first semester, engaging them in classes and activities that focus on the Jesuit ideals of thinking critically and acting justly. Freshmen in the College of Business (CoB) start with the university’s Common Curriculum, receiving a well-rounded education in the tradition of liberal arts institutions. But the CoB takes the freshman experience one step further by placing these students in the BA100 Introduction to Business course followed in the spring semester by BA101 Business Communication. Classes are taught in small sections two days a week, and then all the students come together on Thursday nights for a third class meeting. These two courses have been taught the last three years by the freshman faculty team: Dr. Kendra Reed, Professor George Howard, Dr. Michelle Johnston, and Dr. Kathy Barnett. “Many business schools do not let freshmen take a course in business until their sophomore year. At Loyola, we immediately put our freshmen into the business curriculum so they can start
Spring 2009 www.business.loyno.edu
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