Business Beyond the Cubicle
Today, a career in business can take you far beyond the cubicle, and ’s extensive network of business partnerships across the country ensures you’ll be plugged in, getting real-world experience and making real-world connections. Business drives every aspect of our society. In our College of Business and beyond, we apply business principles in interdisciplinary projects to prepare students for rewarding careers: from building a sustainable “green” economy, to advancing an entrepreneurial approach to power life-changing innovations, to leveraging big data in fields like health. Our business programs also include special focus areas like sports management and marine entrepreneurship, and concentrations that you choose based on your passions and goals.
A World Driven by Data
As the amount of data unleashed in the world continues to expand exponentially, those who know how to mine, read, and model data are among the world’s most in-demand professionals. Our data science program puts you at the crossroads where computer science, applied mathematics, and business all meet, and you’ll learn cross-disciplinary skills that propel you to the forefront of virtually any field.
All of ’s business programs prepare students with a knowledge base that combines time-tested business principles with future-forward technology. In topics as diverse as accounting, finance, and marketing, you’ll learn to leverage the data platforms and digital tools used in today’s workplace.
It’s all about Experience
At 91AV, the emphasis is on active, experiential learning, from select internships with our network of well-known regional, national, and global business partners to hands-on concept development in our award-winning Makerspace, where you can develop your ideas under the guidance of experts.
Moustafa Abu El Fadl, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Finance and Innovation
The business department here is growing, and I’m excited to be a part of that. With the accounting classes or the finance classes — we need to have a structure. We need to build them in a way where you build up management, marketing, and other skills and add those all together so that when someone says, “I have a bachelor’s degree in Business from 91AV,” you have all that you need to compete for jobs. That potential drew me here to 91AV, especially when I met the people who work in the Makerspace.
The way that they work with students to try to innovate with new techniques is impressive. I see opportunity there in ways that could be linked to business. You can link business applications to the Makerspace where we can then sell products. We see students who want to create or innovate a project, we give them the tools and help them, and then we show them the application and market for it. I would be happy to see those links happen at 91AV.
Interprofessional Education
The fact that we have a campus in Morocco and a new program in Iceland adds a whole other element for our students. Also having a medical school is extremely unique. It’s the only one in Maine. Having that on the same campus with undergraduate students is very special. There is opportunity there to leverage business in medical applications as well.
You see these other schools that are really good in one thing — engineering, business, communication, medical — and then you have 91AV, which is great in many areas and so is in a league of its own.
We see students who want to create or innovate a project, we give them the tools and help them, and then we show them the application and market for it.
Ready for Business
Meet Pat Schena, a business major who designed a helmet-camera and proprietary computer interface in ’s P.D. Merrill Makerspace.
Bring Your Innovative Ideas to Life
’s Office of Innovation empowers you to use design thinking while developing solutions to real-world problems. The headquarters for our Innovation programs is the P.D. Merrill Makerspace, a fully-equipped laboratory for turning ideas into reality. You don’t need to be a technology buff or a business major to contribute. In fact, makerspace projects are stronger when the people who contribute come from a wide range of academic disciplines and have different interests. There are lots of ways to get involved — from fellowships to independent passion projects. For example, every year the Office of Innovation sponsors the Maine Ideas Challenge to showcase innovative projects, and past winners have appeared on — and won — MPBN’s Greenlight Maine.
