A Values-Based Approach to Business
Georgetown McDonough’s values-based approach to business is more than a mindset. It’s who we are at our core.
As the oldest Catholic and Jesuit university founded in the United States, Georgetown University is distinctive for its longtime commitment to the values of the Jesuit tradition. At the McDonough School of Business, we live these values through inspiring our faculty and staff to educate the whole person, and for our students and community to care for one another and serve the common good.
We seek out ways to embed social action projects and cases into our curriculum, provide experiential learning opportunities that impact others, and leverage our expertise in business education and research to bring about positive change in our community. As a result, we are prepared to both do well and do good on a global scale.
The Benefits of a Jesuit Education
At Georgetown McDonough, we prepare students with the knowledge, skills, network, and confidence to inspire our community to make a difference to themselves and others.
First Year Seminar
Each year, all undergraduate students enrolled in the First Year Seminar participate in a Social Impact Consulting Project, where they provide solutions to real business challenges facing local nonprofit partners.
The Ethics Project
Taught to undergraduate, MBA, and Executive MBA students, The Ethics Project within the Ethical Leadership course provides student groups $1,000 each to do good in the world.
Social Impact Projects
Working in small teams, M.A. in International Business and Policy students collaborate with public, private, and nonprofit organizations to develop recommendations for tackling international business issues for their Social Impact Projects. They draw upon their classwork to make a positive impact in the world.
Wellness of Mind, Body, and Spirit
Outside of the classroom, Georgetown McDonough fosters a culture that focuses on the wellness of mind, body, and spirit, and encourages students to apply the university’s Jesuit character to their personal passions.
H.O.M.E. Program
The comprehensive, four-year H.O.M.E. (Horizon, Odyssey, Meridian, Empyrean) program, is designed for undergraduate business students to gather in communities away from the Hilltop to engage in thoughtful dialogue and explore individually and as a community their own journey toward self-actualization and the pursuit of purpose.
Operation: Cura Personalis
Operation: Cura Personalis provides a pathway for the McDonough community to come together to experience webinars, events, and other opportunities to engage in health, happiness, and overall wellness.
Embracing Jesuit Values
The Spirit of Georgetown influences the fabric of the educational landscape, community life, and service-oriented approach at Georgetown McDonough and across the university. The McDonough community displays its Jesuit values through everyday interactions, classroom projects, extracurriculars, global experiences, research innovations, service opportunities, and beyond.
Taking Initiative
McDonough’s numerous faculty-led centers and initiatives drive positive change in the business community and in society at large. Each is charged with enhancing the student experience, elevating their issues through impactful research, and convening experts to advance critical issues of importance.
Baratta Center for Global Business
The Baratta Center hosts working groups of global executives, policymakers, and Georgetown faculty and students to find solutions to real-world issues facing the global business community today.
Steers Center for Global Real Estate
The Steers Center explores the intersection of real estate finance and the built environment, including issues of affordable housing, climate risk, and sustainable building practices.
Georgetown Entrepreneurship
Georgetown entrepreneurs use passion, knowledge, and creativity to tackle the world’s most challenging issues. With a focus on the common good, Georgetown Entrepreneurship also takes an active role in the world, through the Jesuit Entrepreneurship Alliance.
Addressing Society’s Most Complex Challenges
At McDonough, we believe that the solutions to the world’s most complex issues reside at the intersection of business and other fields. We have identified three such areas, called our “fields of the future,” which enable us to partner across industries to drive meaningful change.
AI, Analytics, and the Future of Work
To address how technology is changing how we work in a way that looks after those most disrupted by these changes, the AI, Analytics, and Future of Work Initiative produces research, supports student learning, and convenes thought leaders around relevant issues.
The Business of Health
The Business of Health Initiative prepares business leaders and medical professionals to tackle critical issues in the healthcare industry through multidisciplinary research and ongoing engagement with industry practitioners to inspire forward-thinking solutions to the national healthcare system.
The Business of Sustainability
The Business of Sustainability Initiative explores the business case for sustainability to create long-term value for organizations by embracing opportunities and managing risks deriving from economic, environmental, and social developments.
Creating a Better World
It’s not enough to just teach our students about business. Our students, faculty, and staff seek to apply what we teach and learn to benefit the greater community.
Small Business Corps
Business for Impact has partnered with Bank of America, PNC Bank, and Boston Consulting Group, along with dedicated alumni, to create the Small Business Corps, which empowers and supports small businesses in urban and rural under-resourced communities in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia through tailored, student-led consulting services.
The Pivot Program
The Georgetown Pivot Program is a professional development program for previously incarcerated career-oriented individuals. A partnership with Georgetown’s Prisons and Justice Initiative and the DC Department of Employment Services, the program also works closely with employer partners and the business community to advance hiring practices that are more inclusive of people with past convictions.
Georgetown Reach
Georgetown Reach works with rising 8th-grade students and their families to ensure they have access to the information and resources necessary to prepare them for success in the college search. By providing underrepresented students and families guidance and exposure to the college search, the program seeks to increase diversity at top-tier colleges and universities and create opportunities for participants.
Swan Family Ignatian Endowed Professorship
“I view Jesuit values like ‘people for others’ as fundamental to how business works, how it grows, and the good that business does,” Father Quentin Dupont says. “The Swan family has given me a dream job. It’s a very humbling honor and an overwhelming privilege. “l have this deep desire that must be from God to try to bring Jesuit values into the world of business education. It’s an ambitious mission.”
Jesuit Values in the News
Read More
Curriculum, Jesuit Values
Undergraduate Students Present Business Solutions to D.C.-Based Martha’s Table
As part of the First Year Seminar, a course that fosters intellectual growth and critical skills among first-year business students, McDonough undergraduates collaborated with Washington, D.C.-based…
December 20, 2024
Alumni
Beyond Business: The Bridge Builder
Jerome Smalls has spent his adult life building bridges to connect youth to their communities.
November 6, 2024
Jesuit Values, Student Experience
Business as a Force for Good: MBA Students Support Hurricane Helene Victims Through Ethics Project
Marshall Montgomery (MBA’25) has always been driven by a sense of purpose. That mindset is what led him to serve in the U.S. Army for seven years and later attracted him to pursue an MBA at…
November 4, 2024