Greetings From Dean Maxfield – October 2022

Dear Friends,

Our first imperative as a high-quality business school is to provide students with an exemplary classroom education. Our students – and their families – rightly expect to graduate with the technical skills and conceptual frameworks employers require in complex, challenging business environments. The Providence College liberal arts education complements our business program beautifully, giving our graduates an ideal set of skills and perspectives as they begin their careers.

Nearly as important, especially in such a competitive environment, is the work we do to ensure that our students make the meaningful connections that will enhance what they learn directly from their professors. In recent years, we have increased our attention – and applied more resources – to fostering community connections that create meaningful, real-world experiences through which students gain experience and learn to connect with people from outside our college community.

Some of this work takes the form of course-embedded consulting projects, often made possible by the connections our faculty members have made over the course of their careers. One current example involves the global financial services company Citi and a group of MBA students working with Prof. Jonathan Jackson of our finance faculty. The students analyzed data provided by Citi to create recommendations for ways the firm could use those data in project management and budget planning. Six groups made presentations to Prof. Jackson, who chose three finalists, from which Citi executives selected the winner. This process mimics workplace dynamics and it provided those students with a meaningful experience, while also demonstrating to an important corporate partner that PCSB students are capable, focused, and committed to helping them address real concerns and issues.

Incidentally, the list of high-profile companies with which we have worked in recent years is long and impressive, including EY, Bank of America, Samsonite, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and more. These connections help raise the PCSB profile and create opportunities for our students to meet accomplished professionals in various fields and, in some cases, to hear from high-level executives directly when they visit us here on campus.

On a second track, we are engaging more frequently with K-12 students and their teachers around Rhode Island to bring our expertise and resources directly to them. This hearkens to some of PC’s founding principles, which involved serving the local community – an unshakable commitment that has continued throughout the College’s 105-year history.

There are many examples in this category, too, including engagement with the Providence Promise program, a wonderful, parent-driven organization that helps the city’s children plan for post-high school education and identify the pathways to realizing their educational goals. Opening our doors to young people is likewise an effective, efficient way to extend our resources in meaningful ways. One great example occurred in August, when a group of middle school and high school students visited PCSB as part of the Young Voices summer program. I met with this group myself, and their enthusiasm for PC was both obvious and gratifying. We look forward to seeing many of them again next week at PC’s admission open house event.

In observing these community engagement activities, I am always impressed by our students and how seriously they take their responsibilities to either the business they are working with or the young people they are mentoring. Our students embrace the idea of working to make the meaningful connections that are truly part of what makes the Providence College experience – and, specifically, the PCSB experience – both meaningful and enduring.

I hope that you are enjoying the first part of autumn, and I will take this opportunity to wish you a wonderful holiday season as my next update will be at the beginning of 2023. Thank you for your continued interest in the Providence College School of Business.

Sincerely,

Sylvia Maxfield, Ph.D.
Dean