Loyola's Emerging Leaders MBA expands University's Howard County presence, partnerships
December 14, 2009
Set to launch at Loyola University Maryland's Columbia Graduate Center in August 2010, the Sellinger School of Business and Management's Emerging Leaders MBA (ELMBA) looks to expand the University's partnerships with Howard County businesses and offer students in the full-time, accelerated program rich opportunities to develop skills and connections in the area's vibrant business community.
Loyola's Columbia Graduate Center is currently home to several of the University's full-time graduate programs and two part-time programs at the Sellinger School, the Professional MBA and Master of Science in Finance. After exploring several other options, the Sellinger School decided the Columbia, Md. location should also house its first full-time MBA program.
Leggio and other leaders of the program, which is designed for high-achieving students who have recently finished their undergraduate degrees, met with Howard County businesses and development executives to explore how the program's potential location in Columbia could benefit both the development of the region and the experiences of ELMBA students. One in particular, Rand Griffin, CEO of Corporate Office Properties Trust (COPT), a Columbia real estate investment trust, discussed how the area's high concentration of new, fast-growing businesses, many in the information technology sector, could provide ideal learning laboratories for the ELMBA program's already-accomplished students.
"The synergies between the Howard County business landscape and the mission of the ELMBA program became very apparent," said Karyl Leggio, Ph.D., dean of the Sellinger School. "This decision offered Loyola the opportunity to build on its existing relationship with the Howard County business community and offered students an ideal opportunity to engage with promising and innovative businesses in a diverse and vital economic landscape, increasing their potential for attaining high-trajectory positions once they finish their degrees."
Engagement with Howard County businesses, combined with field studies in Silicon Valley, Calif., and Barcelona, Spain, will help advance the program's mission of preparing competent, credible, confident emerging leaders to partner with employers to create social and economic change.
"Howard County is known for innovation; entrepreneurship; proximity to the federal government and related agencies; the richness of its professional, technical, and scientific communities; and outstanding job opportunities," said Andrea Giampetro-Meyer, Ph.D., academic director of the ELMBA program. "This location promises partnerships with business professionals who will offer and inspire cutting-edge ideas, problem-solving, and information sharing that will make this program—and ultimately our students—successful."
The Emerging Leaders MBA will welcome its first cohort class, which will be limited to 40 students, in August 2010. The intense, full-time program will continue for 12 months. Prospective students can attend an open house at the Columbia Center on Jan. 9, 2010 to meet faculty and program administrators and learn more about the program and how to apply; a presentation will begin at 10 a.m. The deadline for priority admission is Feb. 15, 2010, with rolling admission thereafter. For more information on the Emerging Leaders MBA, please visit www.loyola.edu/elmba or contact program director Ann Attanasio at 410-617-2308 or aattanasio@loyola.edu.
For more information or questions regarding this story, contact Courtney Jolley at cjolley@loyola.edu or 410-617-5025.