Business Honors Program

Our Business Honors students take a majority of their Business Core courses together in smaller, more engaged classes as an Honors cohort. These Honors classes have fewer students, preferred instructors, and advanced goals. Students are able to engage with real case studies and work on projects that enhance their academic learnings, such as:

• Annual report project in ACCT 202H
• Symposium project presentations in MARK 201H
• Stock portfolio project in FINC 334H

These classes are honors sections of the Business Core Curriculum and are separate from University Core and the Interdisciplinary Honors Program.

Our Business Honors students attend and participate in a weekly Honors seminar. This Honors seminar is led by our program director and is geared toward professional development and leadership opportunities. Highlights of seminar include guest speakers, business site visits, social activities, service events, and alumni gatherings.

Guest speakers join us from several industries and with varied careers. Examples of recent guest speakers include:

• Chief business officer of a professional football team
• Former U.S Supreme Court Law Clerk
• Audit partner at a Big 4 accounting firm
• CEO at a surgical robotics company
• Co-founder and partner of a venture capitalist firm in emerging markets

The domestic study trip is a hands-on introduction to social entrepreneurship. During fall break of sophomore year, our Business Honors students travel together with their Honors cohort to a U.S. city of their choice to work on a social issue of their choice with an organization of their choice.

During this trip, our students experientially learn how that organization uses business knowledge, skills, and strategies to address the cohort’s selected social issue. Pre-trip sessions introduce the social issue and provide context, and post-trip sessions allow students to engage in discussion and reflection.

Building on the domestic trip's focus on experiential social entrepreneurship, Honors student travel internationally during spring break of junior year. The Honors cohort travels together to a city of their choice outside of the U.S. to examine social entrepreneurship around the world.

During this trip, which runs concurrently with a specific international business course exclusive to our Business Honors program, our students experientially learn in depth how businesses are addressing a social issue in that city or region. Pre-trip sessions introduce the social issue and provide context, and post-trip sessions allow students to engage in discussion and reflection. 

During senior year, our Business Honors students serve as a consulting team for a Chicago-based organization. Student teams assist with organizational projects that relate to their major or area of interest while also participating holistically in the organization’s strategy, execution, analysis of outcomes, and adjustment of approaches. Our student consultants also make presentations to the rest of our Business Honors program to share their work with other students.

Below is a typical, but not required, course sequencing for Business Honors students. Your class sequencing will depend on factors such as major(s) and study abroad plans.
 

First Year

Second Year

Third Year

Fourth Year

Our Business Honors students live together in Francis Hall during freshman year. This allows our Honors students to meet each other, get to know each other, learn from each other, and start building community together from day one. They are also always readily available to each other to talk or study together.

Learn more about Francis Hall.

Our incoming Business Honors students choose upperclassman Business Honors students to serve as their mentors during their freshman and sophomore years. Mentors can help answer a range of questions, including about courses, majors, organizations, internships, and campus life.

Each semester Business Honors students participate in service events together on campus and throughout Chicago. Recent service events include offering meals, blankets, and conversations with people experiencing homelessness in Chicago.

Our Business Honors program organizes multiple social events for our Honors students each school year. Recent social events include: 

• Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field
• Architecture cruise on the Chicago River
• Visit to the Willis Tower Skydeck
• End-of-semester celebration with dinner and bowling at a Chicago entertainment venue
• Performance in Chicago’s Theatre District
• Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks games at the United Center

Our Business Honors alumni and students connect through a series of events each school year. These events include participating on discussion panels at our Honors seminar, joining informal happy hour gatherings with fellow Honors alumni, and attending our annual Business Honors alumni reunion.

Our Business Honors students elect a student leadership team each school year. Elected leadership positions include president, vice president, and class representatives. Our students also have opportunities to serve in more specific leadership roles, such as marketing, social media, and alumni relations coordinators.

All leadership team members have the opportunity to work closely with and advise our program director.

Our Business Honors alumni have opportunities to continue to serve our program in leadership capacities after graduation. The primary roles of our alumni advisors are to:

• Guide our Business Honors alumni programming to help keep our alumni connected to the program after graduation
• Support enrichment features of the program through mentoring, providing on-site job-shadowing experiences for students, assisting with the consulting capstone course, etc.
• Connect our Business Honors students with internship and job opportunities

A secondary role of our alumni advisors is to provide input and feedback on program improvements and decisions.

Bjorn Berg, director of our Business Honors program and clinical professor of accounting and business law, is always available to our students to discuss any matters related to the program. Professor Berg is also a potential resource for advice related to graduate school, law school, and his own professional experiences.

Learn more:

• Read the message from the program director
• Read Professor Berg's faculty profile
• Email Professor Berg

The academic advisor for our Business Honors program is Cole Maltsberger. Cole is our program’s primary contact with respect to questions and specific details related to academic planning and course scheduling for Honors students. Read Cole's staff profile.