MISSION
In support of the mission of the University, the School of Business and Leadership provides a person-centered learning environment for innovative business education and community outreach that fosters the professional and personal development of our students, faculty, and staff.
Our Purpose
Developing Leaders for the Communities of the Future. The world of business needs leaders at all levels to affect change and actively participate in creating a new world. The School of Business and Leadership at Our Lady of the Lake University develops business leaders for the communities of the future by working with and through today's community and business leaders. Business in the future will require a diverse corps of managers, comfortable with technology and capable of integrated decision-making across fields and in partnership with government, politics, and academia. Our academic programs provide an education in the fields of business using the tools of business critical to this future world. Projects and co-curricular activities provide an opportunity for our learners to put these future skills to the test and to recognize that, in many ways, the future is now.
Leaders must develop the knowledge, the personal competencies and the leadership skills necessary to affect change.
Knowledge includes academic facts, concepts and theories that are part and parcel of a traditional liberal arts education with the added emphasis on the particular frameworks necessary to understand global business. These are learned in the traditional classroom environment and online, enhanced by web-based course materials, interactive TV, and other appropriate uses of technology. The conceptual knowledge is rounded with training in relevant skills, particularly those related to communication and to the use of technology. The learning is further affirmed and enhanced through practical application using simulations, projects, internships and similar hands-on opportunities.
Personal competencies are developed through class exercises, co-curricular activities such as workshops and guest speakers, and one-on-one contact with business leaders at all levels. These personal skills help the individual to know himself through an understanding of personal capabilities, interests and values, to manage himself by developing time and stress management skills and learning to delegate and deal with change, and to communicate well by developing both written and oral communication skills as well as an understanding of intercultural factors that affect communication.
Leadership skills of integration, entrepreneurship, and learning are included throughout our curriculum and enhanced by special projects and co-curricular activities. Courses are system-linked and project-oriented, and benefit from a diversity in outlook. Co-curricular activities require the entrepreneurial skills of creativity, innovation, and flexibility, resource gathering, and risk taking. Students of the OLLU School of Business and Leadership develop the skills of scholarship by means of the research, critical thinking, and computations required in their coursework. The continuous learning evidenced by faculty, staff, alumni, and members of the business community serves as a model for student behavior.