Joint Undergraduate Majors

The structure of human knowledge is constantly evolving. New insights often emerge from importing findings or methods from one field into another, often to the surprise of many working in each of the fields.

Naturally, as new combinations of knowledge arise, educational programs that blend the fields together also emerge. Georgetown faculty have been on the forefront of such developments. For example, the last four undergraduate majors created at Georgetown are shared across multiple schools, not “owned” by a single school.

The very first of these majors was a new degree, part of the Izmirlian Program in Business and Global Affairs, the Bachelor of Science in Business and Global Affairs. This is a major jointly administered by the McDonough School of Business and the Walsh School of Foreign Service.

The program was founded on the observation that issues facing businesses have changed. Given the evolution of transportation networks and markets, more and more businesses have global connections, either to acquire materials for their processes or as markets for their services and products.

Hence, leaders of global firms need understanding of geopolitical influences on economic activities. They must understand how global supply chains can be affected by regulations, culture, and political influences. Of course, to serve these needs, Georgetown was able to take advantage of faculty strength in the global affairs at the Walsh School of Foreign Service, on one hand, and the McDonough School of Business, on the other.

The curriculum was designed from scratch, with faculty from both schools involved. As a result, many first-year students are quite challenged by the interdisciplinary nature of the gateway course. With different disciplinary perspectives/approaches in the same course and classroom, some first-year students will come to office hours and ask “what specific things do I need to learn to do well in this course?” Brad Jensen, the lead faculty on the program, reports he replies “This is not high school. We are trying to teach you how to think, not what the facts are or what to think. This requires applying the appropriate conceptual frameworks to specific situations. That is what we are hoping you will learn.”

So, in each year of the program, students enjoy the benefits of experience-based courses. For example, recently sophomores went to the Dominican Republic for socioeconomic and cultural immersion, focusing on how local communities and stakeholders are affected by national and international business and policy. Juniors recently participated in a project-based multi-location experience designed to explore the distribution of business activity through the lens of an industry’s value chain. Students partnered with a medical device manufacturer and traveled along the value chain of the medical device industry, visiting their operational headquarters in the US, manufacturing in Mexico as well as R&D units in Ireland. Seniors produced a capstone project where students worked with and traveled to foreign government ministries to help explore financial and climate-change related issues.

The program has attracted unusually strong students. The first graduating cohort include the MSB class valedictorian; the second, the SFS graduate with the highest GPA in the class. Nearly half of this year’s class earned Latin Honors. The graduates are being hired by leading consulting firms, global technology firms, government, legal firms, think tanks, and nonprofit organizations.

This is only one of the new Georgetown programs that faculty have led, blending together multiple domains of knowledge for new approaches to human understanding and endeavors. It employs innovative experience-based tools that cement learning by applying theoretical concepts in on-the-ground situations. Georgetown faculty and staff that design and conduct these programs deserve our admiration.