As a first-semester freshman in Business Honors, you’ll participate in a three-credit learning community, BUSN 125H. This learning community focuses on:
- helping you develop the personal and business competencies that you will need to be successful in your professional career; and
- helping you make a smooth transition from high school to the university’s intellectual and social environment.
The Core Competencies
In addition to learning specific technical skills through your major, Mays Business School has identified a set of seven core competencies that are required to be a successful business professional as well as a successful person in life. In your freshman learning community, we’ll introduce you to the knowledge and skills that make up these competencies.
- The ability to get your ideas across with effective communication
- Being able to identify and fix performance gaps with problem solving
- Creating new opportunities for organizational or personal growth
- Leading others to accomplish a shared goal
- Being comfortable managing a project… or yourself
- Relying on and working with others in a work group or team
- Maintaining your character and integrity by acting ethically
Transitions
Large groups and small groups, peer leaders and guest speakers, an etiquette dinner, team building activities, unsellable products, career fair, oh my! What is this class….?
While we could have you sit in a class room and listen to a professor drone on through a PowerPoint presentation, we thought, “Why not make this learning more experiential, interactive, relevant, and interesting?”
You’ll meet in the classroom once a week (large group). You’ll be working through case studies, asking questions to guest speakers, or working with other students to sell an unsellable product (Why would you want to buy toothpaste that stains your teeth? You’d be surprised!). Through innovative learning activities in the classroom and out-of-the-classroom (you’ll really enjoy the etiquette dinner!), you’ll begin building an understanding of the core competencies and will begin to apply them to real business situations.
On the other class day each week, you’ll meet with a small group (about 12 of you) of Business Honors freshmen and two upperclassmen who serve as peer leaders. Together, you’ll participate in team building activities, prepare to meet company representatives at the career fair, discuss time management skills, setting goals, and much more. These small groups also offer you opportunities for social interaction with your fellow Business Honors classmates. Friendships are forged here that will carry you through the rest of your college days and into your future.
Freshman Summer Reading
All freshmen entering the Business Honors Program are given a book prior to the start of their first fall semester and then, at the Business Honors Fall Orientation held in late August, we discuss the book. It’s a great way to introduce you to the spirit of discussion, critical thinking, and dialogue you’ll experience in your honors classes.
This year’s book is The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman.
Reading is a fun way to expose yourself to new ideas and new perspectives and books can help you increase your knowledge and understanding of the world. The Business Honors Book and Movie Club meets monthly to discuss a book or watch a movie.
What Freshmen Say About BUSN 125…
Ryan Smith: “The class was a great opportunity to develop leadership qualities and discover more about my own strengths and how best to apply them to everyday situations. It is a class that prepared me well for other business classes by helping me understand more about myself. It also taught me how to work together with a team and enabled me to make friends within the business school that truly makes Mays feel like a community.”
Brian Mathews: “All throughout high school, and even during some of my college classes, I wondered, ‘Am I actually going to use any of this stuff in the real world?’” During Business 125, the answer I got was a resounding, “YES!” The core competencies, strengths test, and books that we read were all geared toward helping us become prepared for the business world. The team project that occurred at the end of the semester reflected an actual business setting, where the ability to work in a group will be vital. Even the in-class assignments challenged the way I thought about the world, and helped me see everything from a new perspective: a business perspective. At the end of the semester, I looked back and was able to say, ‘Yes, THIS is something that is going to help me succeed in the future.’”
Rachel Sparks: “The BUSN 125 class was great in helping me make the adjustment from high school to college. It showed me the tools, competencies, and work ethic that will help me succeed in college and become a valuable future employee. The small class size and small groups not only allowed me to build invaluable relationships with other freshman, upperclassmen, and faculty, but also created an atmosphere in which I was comfortable and excited to participate.”