"What's My Major?" Quiz

At Loyola, we believe the college experience happens outside as much as inside the classroom. Asma Kadri will be the first to affirm that Loyola wants its students to make time to look up from their books and engage in life.

That’s why Loyola offers more than 250 student organizations and countless other ways to enrich the college experience. But there is one college experience unlike any other she’s had, says Kadri—and it’s available only at Loyola.

Through Loyola Limited, the University’s student-run and managed enterprise, undergraduates actually are launching businesses. “I immediately jumped on that,” says Asma, “because it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” Asma is director of both customer relations and marketing for The Flats at Loyola Station, which is possibly the first student-run guesthouse in the nation.

“We have successfully launched a business from the ground up and we’re now working on three more,” Asma says. “We’re conducting all of it flat out—and learning that at 18, 19, 20, 21 years old is irreplaceable. I haven’t met any of my peers that go to different schools who have had similar experiences. I have a business card at 19 years old and I never thought that was something that I would be gaining.”

Loyola offers students still more, she says. Asma points to Loyola’s small class sizes and strong sense of community, which have helped her engage with classmates and faculty. “My professors knew my name, they knew my major, they knew where I was from, even things that were going on in my life.” The follow-up and personal interaction changed her academic experience. "It wasn’t just me going to class to hear the content. It was me going to build relationships," she says.

Through those real-world experiences and personal interactions, Asma has realized that Loyola students have a similar mindset. “Everyone here wants to do something more. You want to be substantial and make your mark and be part of something bigger,” she says. “We’re all looking to do the next great thing.” How’d you like to put that on your business card?

If you want to talk philosophy, Dr. Ernestine Riggs has a lot to say about why Loyola faculty members are such great professors.

“Loyola faculty members have a genuine love of the profession, are dedicated to our students, and strive to exemplify what we teach,” she says. “At Loyola, our students expect a top-notch education, and they receive it because we have a top-notch faculty.”

Loyola professors bring years of experience and studied insights that contribute to their excellence as educators. For her part, Dr. Riggs has been teaching in Loyola’s School of Education since 1988. Among other places, she spent 28 years in the Chicago Public Schools, and even taught in Japan for the Department of Defense Overseas Schools, where she earned an Outstanding Elementary Teacher of America award. She’s taught Head Start, primary, intermediate, middle school, special education, and high school. That’s a pretty impressive resume.

At Loyola, our faculty’s outstanding experience merges with a commitment to research that matters. The results? Great benefits for students. “Our research has reason and meaning, and that’s to give students the foundation to apply it in practical situations,” says Riggs. Faculty members also guide undergraduate students in performing purposeful research: “As students perform research and reflect on it, they see ways to solve problems they’ve encountered. Students graduate Loyola with a renewed spirit and faith in their ability to make a difference.”

Loyola professors are dedicated role models for student success. “We help our students develop a real-life approach. We want them to carry with them what we’ve modeled—caring, concern, demand for high-quality knowledge, and the idea that people are as alike as they are different.”

Riggs has a philosophy, too, about what makes Loyola students so great: their immense enthusiasm, enormous pride in becoming skillful, and their great expectations for their careers. Talk about top-notch.