Gabelli IP’s will be changing within the coming years. The Fordham Ram
By Ashley Katusa
In response to student feedback from the Summer of 2015, the Gabelli School of Business has restructured its Integrated Projects, or IPs.
In previous years, Career Exploration IP was assigned in the Spring of sophomore year. However, by this time, many students had already declared their majors, according to Greer Jason, assistant dean of freshman at the Gabelli School of Business. Consequently, the Career Exploration IP is being transitioned to freshman year, where it is more appropriate to learn these skills. Furthermore, many students found it difficult to retain course material due to breaks between weeks in the semester.
To remedy this, Gabelli is implementing a new course structure, so that there are 10 straight class sessions — instead of giving weeks off during the semester, students will end the semester early. Greer finds that students focus on final exams without having to worry as much about IP responsibilities.
Other changes due to student feedback include Gabelli-offered resume and cover letter instruction before the Career Fair on campus and the inclusion of industry recruiters in the Personal and Professional Development Panel. For Lincoln Center students, Lisa Green, undergraduate core curriculum manager of Gabelli, and Father Vincent, assistant dean and program advisor of Gabelli, helped create a career fair that which retains the basic principles experienced during the Rose Hill fair but includes Lincoln Center academic interests.
Students can expect to see some of these changes implemented in the 2015-2016 school year, and the rest of the changes implemented in the 2016-2017 school year.
Integrated Projects were added to the Gabelli curriculum in 2009. These projects, which include Career Exploration, a consulting project and analytics and leadership, help students explore their strengths and navigate would-be difficult decisions about their futures.
“I think the Integrated Project is a great way to practically apply academic principles learned in the classroom to real life situations,” said Caroline Rizzo, GSB ’18.
“It is an interesting teaching technique that truly allows the students to see how all aspects of the curriculum work together cohesively in a business setting,” Matthew Schiller, GSB ’18, said. Schiller explained that IPs were helpful in analyzing the issues in a team. “It’s nice to get feedback in a group setting like I do in Integrated Projects,” he said.
In the past several years, Hughes Hall received a $38 million face-lift becoming a technological hub. Inside is a trading room with 15 Bloomberg terminals, video conference rooms, a student lounge outfitted with iMacs, classrooms with recording equipment which enables students to re-watch lectures along with many other amenities. Hughes also houses the Gabelli-specific Personal and Professional Development Center, which works with Career Services to provide students with a highly tailored, industry-focused experience to help them excel in their desired field.
Lerzan Aksoy, associate dean of undergraduate studies for Gabelli, explained that these changes are “a way to help students think early on about what they want to do.”
“You don’t really know what you want to do when you come to school,” she added. “It’s nice to get exposure. That’s really the only way you can figure out what you like and what you don’t like — expose yourself to as many things as you can.”
