EMBA Program Offers Jesuit Values Course

Beginning January 2018, the Georgetown McDonough Executive MBA (EMBA) program will offer a new course, “The Problems of Work and Life,” that ties Jesuit values to the curriculum.

Many second-year EMBA courses focus on one of Georgetown’s differentiating factors: its location in Washington, D.C.; its Jesuit environment; or its international orientation. “The Problems of Work and Life” is designed to focus on both Georgetown’s Jesuit values and its global concentration.

The classes will be composed of presentations, small group discussions, and hands-on activities. Students will be required to complete integrative essays and keep a personal journal throughout the course. One of the last classes will focus on tools for personal development, such as discernment and Ignatian practices.

Seven different instructors will teach the course, including three members of the Society of Jesus, a Georgetown Law professor, and a former fellow of the John Main Center for Meditation and Inter-religious Dialogue. Fr. Gregory Konz will serve as director of the program.

Professor Stanley Nollen, who helped create the course, has a cohesive vision for the structure of the classes. “The course will have seamless integrity,” Nollen said. “It will not be a parade of guest speakers. It will be a unified sequence of people who are best situated to offer that particular piece of instruction.”

Nollen hopes the course will significantly impact the students and help them “understand themselves better, acquire tools they can use for the rest of their lives to maintain equilibrium, and appreciate more fully the totality of their life responsibilities in their organizations as well as individually.”