The Business Career Success Series provides a program of one credit weekend courses under the School of Business Administration’s three values of Excel, Engage, and Inspire. These classes have three goals:
- Emphasize skills such as negotiations, personal finances, and communication.
- Engage students with members of the community (outside of the SBA)
- Get all class time done in one weekend.
Other important points about these classes:
- The classes are primarily taught by adjuncts who are our community partners but may be taught by a regular faculty member in unusual circumstances.
- The classes do not have prerequisites, corequisites, or equivalents. The courses are open to all undergraduates at the university.
- All courses are 200 level.
Lower Division
Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to identify and manage one’s own emotions while recognizing the emotions of others. It is an important skill in the workplace which can separate average and excellent performance. This course will give students tools to understand and develop their emotional intelligence in the workplace.
Business leadership refers to how people in an organization set objectives and influence others to achieve those objectives. Topics include leadership styles, theories of leadership, and case studies of leaders.
Toxic leadership refers to the abuse of power by a business leader who puts their own interest before the interests of the organization and its employees. Toxic leaders create a climate of fear among employees in the workplace. This course will examine how to identify toxic leadership and change leadership styles.
This class examines how individuals can identify, understand, and use the elements of effective communication in the business environment. Topics include active listening, feedback, communication channels, nonverbal cues, responsiveness, and respect.
Image and reputation management refers to the work needed to build, maintain, and even repair personal and professional image and reputation. Topics include self-assessment, on-line presence, gratitude, trust building, authenticity, and integrity. Case studies of famous people who have experienced a reputational setback and redeemed themselves will provide discussion on different ways to build, maintain and repair image and reputation.
Negotiations refer to a form of persuasive communication that can contribute to business success and help build better relationships. These skills are important both in business and personal endeavors. This course will examine how to build skills in negotiations that will help with deal making, career progression and informal daily interactions.
Sales refers to the activities involved in selling goods and/or services in a given time period. This course focuses on how the student can engage in sales by building effective relationships and learning strategies for prospecting and developing a sales process.
Resiliency refers to the ability to recover from difficulties. Building resilience has become a vital tool in the workplace and applies to personal and professional excellence. This course will examine how to build resilience by developing a growth mindset, exploring of self- awareness, and engaging in self-management.
Emergency preparedness refers to how businesses protect their operations, infrastructure, and workers from human-made or natural events such as terrorism, cyberattacks, pandemics, earthquakes, tornadoes, and fires. This class will examine why and how strategic business owners put emergency plans in place.
How an organization communicates with its stakeholders impacts its strategic success. This course examines how organizations use informal and formal communication to achieve strategic objectives.
This course is an introduction to the fundamental principles of personal financial planning. Topics include analysis and evaluation of financial strategies, current topics in wealth management, and career options for financial planning.
Intellectual property refers to property created by the human intellect such as copyrights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets. Management and protection of intellectual property is an integral part of business strategy. This course will focus on management and use of intellectual property to increase business value.
Cryptocurrency refers to digital currency that is secured by cryptography and does not have a central backer, such as a government or bank. In this course, students will learn how digital currency is rapidly growing in traditional finance. Topics include blockchain technology, digital wallets, decentralized finance, and crypto security.
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet software program that allows the user to analyze and visualize data. This course will introduce students to Excel concepts that allow them to analyze and present data in a format that will inform business decisions. This course will use hands-on exercises to cover practical Excel skills used every day in business.
Power BI brings together software services, apps, and connectors to turn data into visual and interactive products. This course covers how to take data and turn it into a presentation using Power BI. Lessons will include how to import data, create visualizations, allow interactivity, and make reports.
Topic to be determined by faculty.
A side hustle refers to work that brings in extra money beyond a person’s regular job and main income source. In this course, students will learn about business scope, pricing strategies, basic costs, financing, business licensing and regulations, and other considerations of a side hustle. There also will be time for students to work on their own side hustle ideas.
This course is designed to help students who are undecided about their major or career engage in the process of self-reflection and research. Students who complete this course will have a better understanding of the factors involved in making a career decision. Time will also be spent on understanding and utilizing tools that can be helpful in this process, such as LinkedIn, job search sites, and Gonzaga-specific resources.
This course is designed to help students understand and succeed in the job/internship search process. Topics include finding job postings, tailoring resumes and cover letters, interviewing in-person and online, negotiating an offer, and succeeding in the workplace. This course will give students tangible skills and resources that will help them stand out in the job market.
This course examines several key topics about working and surviving in an organizational setting. These topics are pertinent to both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. Topics include the joy of mistakes, working with people from different age groups and levels of experience, group projects, meetings and presentations, gatekeepers and bureaucracy, tips on when to listen and when to speak up, office communications and presentations, and taking and giving criticism.
Career preparedness refers to knowledge, skills, and abilities that allow workers to enter the workforce with success and create a foundation on which to build a productive career. Topics include professionalism, communication, leadership and management, critical thinking, and belonging.
This class examines several aspects of the Jesuit mission of Gonzaga University and how it connects to career issues. Topics include the life of St. Ignatius, the prayer/reflection practice of Jesuits, and modern and secular career advice of management consultants.
Intercultural business communication refers to how people in organizations communicate in intercultural and cross-cultural business contexts. Whether the context is regional or global, intercultural business communication skills are a strategic advantage. This course explores how to develop intercultural competence and communication skills that will allow students to thrive across multiple contexts.
Course is available intermittently.
This course examines several issues of gender in the U.S. workplace including the feminist movement and backlash, the intersection of race and gender, and transgender and gender non-conforming discrimination in the workplace. The course examines the individual and societal impacts of workplace gender inequality.
Storytelling allows a leader to engage listeners by structuring information as a story instead of talking about facts. This course develops individual and collective views of equity through storytelling. Authentic leadership will be a focus of the course as storytelling is explored as a way to impact individuals, organizations, and society.
A nonprofit is an organization that works for a collective, public or social benefit. This class will provide an introduction to nonprofits. Topics include legal structure, a few regulatory pieces, mission and visioning, basic strategic planning, and a survey of the local non-profit sector.
Nonprofit fundraising refers to the ongoing process of gathering donations and other funds to support a nonprofit organization’s efforts to meet the needs of the community it serves. This course will address essential marketing and fundraising skills, principles, and tactics needed to thrive in the nonprofit landscape.
This course examines doing business as an educational non-profit organization. Topics include the relationship between product – in this case, educational resources —and development, including fundraising, grants, and marketing. By learning about the mission, resources and outreach of a nonprofit organization, students will analyze and help solve existing challenges in marketing and developing new resources.
This course examines the concepts of management and leadership in nonprofit organizations. Topics include legal, financial, and organizational governance of nonprofits and well as the role and challenges of leadership in the nonprofit sector. The course examines leadership philosophies used in the nonprofit sector and how differing styles affect effectiveness and achievement of organizational mission.
Gonzaga students often choose to engage in post-graduation service organizations such as the Peace Corps, Jesuit Volunteer Corps, Teach for America, and Americorps. This course will give students tools to examine the options for post-graduate service work and begin to prepare for their roles.
This course will explore community leadership strategies and practice through the lens of place-based engagement and adaptive leadership. The course will introduce students to critical community engagement and leadership frameworks that inform Gonzaga’s commitment to place, spend time exploring our shared place of Northeast Spokane, and provide opportunities to learn from resident leaders who exemplify adaptive leadership in practice.
This course explores the leadership concepts that global organizations need to thrive. Students will examine culture, economics, and politics to understand how they can adapt their leadership in a global market.
This course examines the legal and ethical issues facing professionals in the healthcare industry. Students will examine private healthcare law and government regulation of health services with a focus on quality, cost, access, and autonomy.
Upper Division
In addition to their major and minor areas of study, all undergraduate students follow a common program designed to complete their education in those areas that the University considers essential for a Catholic, Jesuit, liberal, and humanistic education. The University Core Curriculum consists of forty-five credits of course work, with additional designation requirements that can be met through core, major, or elective courses.
The University Core Curriculum is a four-year program, organized around one overarching question, which is progressively addressed through yearly themes and questions. Hence, core courses are best taken within the year for which they are designated. First year core courses encourage intellectual engagement and provide a broad foundation of fundamental skills. Second and third year courses examine central issues and questions in philosophy and religious studies. The fourth year course, the Core Integration Seminar, offers a culminating core experience. Taken at any time throughout the four years, broadening courses intersect with the core themes and extend students’ appreciation for the humanities, arts, and social and behavioral sciences. Finally, the designation requirements (writing enriched, global studies, and social justice) reflect important values and reinforce students’ knowledge and competencies.
Overarching Core Question: As students of a Catholic, Jesuit, and Humanistic University, how do we educate ourselves to become women and men for a more just and humane global community?
Year 1 Theme and Question: Understanding and Creating: How do we pursue knowledge and cultivate understanding?
- The First-Year Seminar (DEPT 193, 3 credits): The First-Year Seminar (FYS), taken in the fall or spring of the first year, is designed to promote an intellectual shift in students as they transition to college academic life. Each small seminar is organized around an engaging topic, which students explore from multiple perspectives. The FYS is offered by many departments across the University (click here [PDF] for list of FYS courses).
- Writing (ENGL 101, 3 credits) and Reasoning (PHIL 101, 3 credits): The Writing and Reasoning courses are designed to help students develop the foundational skills of critical reading, thinking, analysis, and writing. They may be taken as linked sections. Writing (ENGL 101) carries one of the three required writing-enriched designations (see below).
- Communication & Speech (COMM 100, 3 credits): This course introduces students to interpersonal and small group communication and requires the application of critical thinking, reasoning, and research skills necessary to organize, write, and present several speeches.
- Scientific Inquiry (BIOL 104/104L, CHEM 104/104L, or PHYS 104/104L, 3 credits): This course explores the scientific process in the natural world through evidence-based logic and includes significant laboratory experience. Students pursuing majors that require science courses will satisfy this requirement through their major.
- Mathematics (above Math 100, 3 credits): Mathematics courses promote thinking according to the modes of the discipline—abstractly, symbolically, logically, and computationally. One course in mathematics, above Math 100, including any math course required for a major or minor, will fulfill this requirement. MATH 100 (College Algebra) and courses without the MATH prefix do not fulfill this requirement.
Year 2 Theme and Question: Being and Becoming: Who are we and what does it mean to be human?
- Philosophy of Human Nature (PHIL 201, 3 credits): This course provides students with a philosophical study of key figures, theories, and intellectual traditions that contribute to understanding the human condition; the meaning and dignity of human life; and the human relationship to ultimate reality.
- Christianity and Catholic Traditions (RELI, 3 credits). Religious Studies core courses approved for this requirement explore diverse topics including Christian scriptures, history, theology, and practices as well as major contributions from the Catholic intellectual and theological traditions (click here [PDF] for a list of approved courses) .
Year 3 Theme and Question: Caring and Doing: What principles characterize a well lived life?
- Ethics (PHIL 301 or RELI, 3 credits): The Ethics courses are designed to help students develop their moral imagination by exploring and explaining the reasons humans should care about the needs and interests of others. This requirement is satisfied by an approved ethics course in either Philosophy (PHIL 301) or Religious Studies (click here [PDF] for a list of approved courses).
- World/Comparative Religion (RELI, 3 credits): Religious Studies courses approved for this core requirement draw attention to the diversity that exists within and among traditions and encourage students to bring critical, analytical thinking to bear on the traditions and questions considered. These courses carries one of the required two global-studies designations (see below) (click here [PDF] for a list of approved courses).
Year 4 Theme and Question: Imagining the Possible: What is our role in the world?”
- Core Integration Seminar (DEPT 432, 3 credits). The Core Integration Seminar (CIS) offers students a culminating core experience in which they integrate the principles of Jesuit education, prior components of the core, and their disciplinary expertise. Some CIS courses may also count toward a student’s major or minor. The CIS is offered by several departments across the University (click here [PDF] for list of CIS courses).
The Broadening Courses
- Fine Arts & Design (VART, MUSC, THEA, 3 credits): Arts courses explore multiple ways the human experience can be expressed through creativity, including across different cultures and societies. One approved course in fine arts, music, theatre, or dance will fulfill this requirement (click here [PDF] for a list of approved courses).
- History (HIST, 3 credits): History courses are intended to develop students’ awareness of the historical context of both the individual and the collective human experience. One course in History (HIST 101, HIST 102, HIST 112, HIST 201, HIST 202) will fulfill this requirement.
- Literature (3 credits): Literature courses foster reflection on how literature engages with a range of human experience. One approved course in Literature (offered by English, Classics, or Modern Languages) will fulfill this requirement (click here [PDF] for a list of approved courses).
- Social & Behavioral Sciences (3 credits): Courses in the social and behavioral sciences engage students in studying human behavior, social systems, and social issues. One approved course offered by Criminal Justice, Economics, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, or Women and Gender Studies will fulfill this requirement (click here [PDF] for a list of approved courses).
The Designations
Designations are embedded within already existing core, major, minor, and elective courses. Students are encouraged to meet designation requirements within elective courses as their schedule allows; however, with careful planning students should be able to complete most of the designation requirements within other core, major, or minor courses.
- Writing Enriched (WE; 3 courses meeting this designation): Courses carrying the WE designation are designed to promote the humanistic and Jesuit pedagogical ideal of clear, effective communication. In addition to the required core course, Writing (ENGL 101), which carries one of the WE designations, students must take two other WE-designated courses (click here [PDF] for a list of approved courses).
- Global-Studies (GS; 2 courses meeting this designation): Courses carrying the GS designation are designed to challenge students to perceive and understand human diversity by exploring diversity within a context of constantly changing global systems. In addition to the required core course, World/Comparative Religion (RELI 300-level), which carries one of the GS designations, students must take one other GS-designated course (click here [PDF] for a list of approved courses).
- Social-Justice (SJ; 1 course meeting this designation): Courses carrying the SJ designation are designed to introduce students to one or more social justice concerns. Students must take one course that meets the SJ designation (click here [PDF] for a list of approved courses).
Major-specific adaptations to the University Core Curriculum
All Gonzaga students, regardless of their major, will complete the University Core Curriculum requirements. However some Gonzaga students will satisfy certain core requirements through major-specific programs or courses. Any major-specific adaptations to the core are described with the requirements for the majors to which they apply.