Announcing the New Business Minor from the Foster School of Business
At Foster, we strive to better humanity through business. The expertise, insight, and skills gained by an education from the Pacific Northwest’s top business school can create a world of good across communities, industries, and economies. And when you believe in what you do, you want to share it as widely as possible.
That’s why we’re excited to announce to the wider University of Washington undergraduate community the new Business Minor from the Foster School of Business, open to all non-business majors.
The Business Minor from Foster offers undergrads the opportunity to build a diverse set of career and life skills, learning from Foster faculty members in courses covering financial literacy, accounting, management, entrepreneurship, marketing, sales, and information systems.
Creating a Campus-Wide Foster Community
There’s long been interest from undergrads in a business curriculum and its boundless applications to an array of fields. But even a business school is not immune from the realities of supply and demand, and capacity constraints within the Business Major and its classes have been a point of frustration among Huskies.
“We’ve heard a clear call to provide non-business students on the UW campus the opportunity to obtain some fundamental business skills,” said Frank Hodge, Dean of the Foster School. “We’re excited to provide these students with the option to earn a minor that will equip them with the critically important business skills needed to succeed in so many professions today.”
Envisioned by Dean Hodge to create broader inclusion and accessibility to the Foster School, the curriculum of the new Business Minor underwent a rigorous review by faculty before being approved. It is cutting edge and world class.
“Students have long expressed an interest in getting a general business minor from Foster, and I am thrilled we’ve figured out a way to offer one.” said Vikki Haag Day, Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Programs at the Foster School. “The curriculum has been designed to provide students with business fundamentals, from accounting to finance to marketing to information systems, making them applicable to any career. While there are core courses all Business Minors will take, there are more than a dozen electives to accommodate a student’s individual interests.”
Fostering Broader Accessibility and Inclusion to a World-Class Business School
The future Founders Hall.
“What is exciting to me is the hybrid nature of the minor,” continues Assistant Dean Day. “Not only does this flexibility make the Business Minor more accessible across campus — it also positions our stellar faculty to be more available to teach a broader student body.” In-person events each quarter will bring the broader undergraduate community into Foster’s corner of campus, including the forthcoming Founders Hall.
And beyond the new Business Minor itself, students who wish to try out business coursework before committing to the Business Minor, or who do not have enough space in their schedule to complete the full minor, have the option of completing the Business for Life digital badge.
The digital Foster Business for Life Badge, available to the entire UW Undergrad community.
Digital badges are verifiable micro-credentials that can be displayed on social media such as LinkedIn and used in digital portfolios and resumes. To earn the Foster School’s Business for Life badge, students need to only take the FIN 205 or ACCTG 219 course, as well as two of any additional Business Minor core courses.
Indispensable to the launch of the Foster Business Minor and the Foster Business for Life Badge has been the support of BECU, Washington’s largest member-owned, not-for-profit financial cooperative serving more than 1.2 million members throughout the Northwest.
“Our focus is on improving the financial well-being of our members and communities, and education is shown to be an important contributor to long-term financial health,” said Scott Strand, Chief Operating Officer at BECU. “These new programs will help more students gain access to courses that will provide them with beneficial skills for everyday life, with impacts well beyond the classroom.”
Foster’s Dempsey Hall
“At Foster, our purpose statement begins with ‘together.’” says Dean Hodge. “We hope the new Business Minor will prove to be an enabler and amplifier of our purpose, helping foster leaders, insights and progress across the UW campus.”
