Through the lens of a Jesuit values-centered approach, Loyola University Maryland’s Sellinger School of Business and Management provides students with the rigorous academic experience and practical application of theory that transforms students. At Loyola, students gain the professional skills, global insights, and moral compass to be successful and engaged leaders in their organizations and communities and they learn to see business differently.  They graduate confident, ethical, effective leaders who make a difference in the world because of the difference our education made in them.


Loyola was founded in 1852. In 1980, the Reverend Joseph A. Sellinger, S.J., Loyola’s President for nearly 30 years, formally established a business school at the University. Fr. Sellinger’s leadership and unwavering commitment to excellence, personal integrity, and professional ethics inspired trustees to name the business school in his honor in 1984. Fr. Sellinger was clear in his mission and the role of this business school at the University and in the community. He stated, “Business will not change Loyola. Loyola will change business.”


Loyola embraces its role in business to lead change. At Loyola, educating students to make responsible, ethical decisions in business is not a top-down approach, but bottom up. It is Fr. Sellinger’s same sense of mission that drives our curricula, the recruitment of our faculty and students, and the organizations we turn to for networking and employment opportunities for our graduates. At the Sellinger School, ethics, sustainability, and corporate social responsibility are concepts woven throughout every part of the curriculum. We teach students to look at the big picture, as profitable business strategies will emerge only when business leaders look to the social, environmental, and economic consequences of their decisions.


In Sellinger, teaching is often informed by scholarly research. Faculty from a range of disciplines explore topics that consider how mainstream business can engage in work that promotes decision-making that is socially, ethically, and environmentally sound. Sellinger’s department of Law and Social Responsibility is especially engaged in research that promotes high-level thinking about how to harness positive corporate behavior, and the department’s interdisciplinary research considers regulation of financial markets, the role of the corporate apology in dispute resolution, protections for day laborers, responsible practices for hazard transfer/toxic exports, new governance principles in the employment setting, and more. Through engaged research, Sellinger faculty inspire graduates to make informed, confident decisions that have a positive impact on the world around them.


When we recruit students, we ask how their values influence their ambitions and leadership philosophies. This qualifier sets the tone for the culture of our student population. It is evident that these values carry through.  For example, in October 2010 Financial Times named Loyola University Maryland’s Sellinger School 3rd in the world in ethics/corporate social responsibility.


Our partners in our local, national, and business communities are those that operate with integrity, who value an education grounded in ethics when they search for new employees, and who are willing to offer students internships, field studies, and other opportunities to see ethics in action. For instance, right in the greater Baltimore area, Sellinger graduates have worked on Under Armour’s new “charged cotton,” a product that highlights innovation, performance, and sustainability, and at McCormick—an agricultural-based business that offers spices, seasonings and flavorings—used their Loyola MBA studies when considering the supply chain in order to minimize its impact on the environment.


During the 2009 – 2010 academic year, we launched our first full-time MBA program, the Emerging Leaders MBA, or ELMBA. This particular program is centered on one central question: How do competent, credible, confident emerging leaders contribute to sustainable value creation for all stakeholders? The program challenges students to grow on all levels—honing leadership skills, and testing ethical decision-making capabilities through a variety of real world experiences, including live cases, internships, mentoring, and international field studies.


The ELMBA program begins with a residency that emphasizes discernment and reflection. The full-year curriculum integrates traditional courses with both experiential learning and extracurricular opportunities. “Ethics and Social Responsibility” and “New Governance” offer focused, in-depth learning opportunities that highlight ethics, social responsibility, and sustainability, while additional courses such as “Leadership and Management,” “Information and Technology for Management,” and “Globalization” explore social responsibility issues in the context of discipline-specific learning. Moreover, domestic and international field studies, speaker series such as “Ethics Week,” and opportunities for community engagement/service encourage students to understand and reflect upon social and environmental issues. In August, 2011, the inaugural ELMBA cohort will join Sellinger MBA graduates in the workforce, ready to make a difference in the world.


The Sellinger School’s students, alumni, faculty, and corporate partners strive to contribute to more than just the bottom line, so that business can do something more or better. That “something” becomes the real justification for  business. Our graduates understand that when a business does something more or better, it succeeds economically and socially. This is the Sellinger difference.  This is the Loyola difference.