Suffolk University, in an effort to expand on student opportunities after their bachelor’s degrees, has decided to adapt a new Master of Management Studies (MMS) program out of the Sawyer Business School’s Management and Entrepreneurship.
This program, which is specifically targeted for students who did not study business during their undergrad, hopes to create an environment for those students to hone in on their management skills to further their careers, according to Associate Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship and Director of MMS program, Laurie Levesque.
“We are encouraging students who are in liberal arts or STEM majors to consider it as an add-on, to help them position themselves in the job market as someone more poised for advancement,” said Levesque to The Suffolk Journal. “For students who have had similar content as the MMS, they are better off working for a few years and coming back when they are ready either to progress as a manager or if they have already been promoted.”
The program hopes to reach students both locally in Boston as well as internationally. The MMS program hopes to ensure all graduates have a well-rounded background to enter the business field.
“We have been working on providing opportunities for students to really hone in on the areas of study that they are most interested in and to build that expertise. So we see ourselves as a piece of that puzzle by giving an opportunity to round out their background experience and to have more career progression opportunities going forward,” said Sheila Webber, the chair of the Entrepreneurship and Management department at Suffolk to The Journal.
The degree will require a total of 11 courses, which can either be taken part-time and require at the most two years of coursework, or full-time, which can take up to a year. The course will have a mandatory introduction course, two prerequisite courses, six core courses and the final capstone course.
The courses have a mix of topics, including what is covered by the Entrepreneurship and Management Department for undergraduates, as well as others that focus more on management.
“What we are really pushing with this degree is two intertwining areas; one is management skills and content where the students will learn more about diverse workplaces, how to create learning organizations, how to manage day to day difficulties, how to handle difficult conversations, how to negotiate, etc,” said Levesque. “The other thing we are really excited to have and what I think is unique to the program is a focus on the individual’s personal development, an understanding of who they are; their personality, their preferences, their biases.”
One of the goals at the start of the course is to have as much of a diverse student population as possible, according to Webber.
“We will attract a variety in backgrounds and experiences, which is always beneficial for the classroom environment. A variety is what we are hoping for,” said Webber.
With the goal to keep the course as relevant as possible, past alumni of the Sawyer Business School (SBS) will have a say on what goes into the program.
“We’re launching a ‘Young Professional Management Advisory Board’ for alumni to give insight to keep this degree current but also use their networks and energy to build up the co-curricular side,” said Levesque.
Much like the opportunities offered to undergraduate students, the MMS program has various study-abroad opportunities for students going through the program. These experiences are incorporated into their program-ending capstone, which focuses on combining all the experiences of the course into one.
“They will take all that in the capstone, which is a client-consulting project, where they pull together all their knowledge and they will develop their own model of leadership. What do they see as the most effective type of leadership and pull together their knowledge of courses and feedback and their assessments,” said Levesque. “They will think about who they are and how they continue to develop themselves as a leader and in a way develop a career action plan for how they are going to implement this. They are going to walk away with a personal leadership philosophy and the experience of working with clients.”
The goal of the program is to expand students’ knowledge not only in management, but their overall business skills as a whole.
“My aspirations would be that students walk out of here, not just with the skills and knowledge to be a better manager, but with a personal leadership philosophy that guides them to be the most effective in their career,” said Levesque.
