Individualizing Education: Creating A More Interesting College Experience For Everyone

The University of Southern California is constantly changing and implementing new programs. Over the past few years, most of that change has been for the better, substantially increasing Southern California's prominence throughout the country. This positive change, however, has not kept USC from remaining open to all sorts of suggestions on how their methods can be improved. In trying to make the University as prestigious as possible, they have been taking advice on various aspects of academia through a program called the Dean's Prize for the Enrichment of Student Academic Life; a program that allows students to speak out on how they feel Southern California could be improved. One of the main points in USC's strategic plan of 2004 is to "shape educational programs to meet the needs of qualified students through pedagogy, instructional technology, curricula, admissions, and support services," and they are using this program to do exactly that. With that said, I would like to use this post as a means to give my recommendations on how I think the Marshall School of Business could improve their undergraduate program.

The Marshall School of Business, shown above, offers a lot of opportunities not available in most universities throughout the world, but I cant help but think how much room for improvement there still is. Most of the classes I have taken throughout my three years in Marshall have been interesting and helpful. However, there are a few classes I have taken that I have found to be not only uninteresting, but also not applicable to my current career preference. The course list for the undergraduate business program includes a set of 5 prerequisite courses and 10 required core courses, not including general education programs required by the university. It is utterly impossible for every course required by the business program to apply to every student, and because of this, I feel that a lot of the courses required are wasted on uninterested students.

My proposition for the undergraduate business program is a more student oriented course list, the goal of which being to make each individual's time in Marshall as interesting and thought provoking as possible. This list would include most of the required subjects already found in USC's course list, but would also give students an opportunity to choose a certain amount of courses prior to their senior concentration. There are a number of options that could be more applicable to some students than taking Finance, a second Accounting or Statistics course, and a third Economics class, etc. Rather than having to take these classes, the school could offer speaker series, internships, or even allow students to take classes under different parts of the university. All of these options could make the college learning experience much more interesting for each individual in the undergraduate business program.

After two summers of internships, I can speak from experience in saying that internships provide much more practical and useful information than any course offered at Southern California. If credit were given for interning, students would be more willing to work during the school year, thus gaining more career-oriented knowledge. Rather than force a student to take a class on a topic they will most assuredly never use again, allowing students to take part in internships for credit could allow each individual the opportunity to learn a great deal about their specific interests in a new environment, as is shown in the picture to the right. Speaker series are another great way to learn about different aspects of the business world, and would be very interesting and informative means of education for college students. Learning about the lives of successful businessmen in all aspects of life could educate students on topics not normally discussed in a classroom. This could be broken up into a number of different industries, possibly introducing the senior concentrations, and could give students a glimpse into a future career in each part of the business world better than any class ever could. These are only two options, but there are a lot of different courses or programs USC could offer in order to individualize undergraduate business education.

I am under the impression that the reason the undergraduate business program has such a wide array of courses required is to give each student a quick look into as many career paths as possible. Requiring so many courses does exactly that, however, I believe that this idea has been taken to an extreme unnecessary in order to obtain their initial goal. For example, giving a student the opportunity to take an internship with a marketing firm rather than being forced to take a third Economics course would be more interesting, informative, and much more practical for that student. Introducing this system into the business program would not be detrimental to the program; students with no current career preference could still take the wide array of courses currently required. Individualizing each student's education in Marshall would give every student the ability to make his or her four years at USC as interesting and career-oriented as possible.

David A. Gottfried: A Leader In Creating An Environmentally Focused Industry

The University of Southern California, shown left, defines its honorary degrees as a means “[t]o honor individuals who have distinguished themselves through extraordinary achievements in scholarship, the professions, or other creative activities, whether or not they are widely known by the general public.” Those selected by the University to receive an honorary degree deliver the commencement address to the graduating class during spring graduation ceremonies. Past recipients of honorary degrees include: former astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, the Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, as well as U.S. Senator John McCain. As commencement approaches, I have decided to honor someone whom I feel is playing a very important role in real estate. I am nominating David A. Gottfried for an honorary degree in laws, an award given for outstanding public service, at the University of Southern California for his efforts in making the real estate industry more environmentally conscious. He might not be well known outside of his niche, but he is leading the transformation of big industries to a less detrimental means of energy consumption, which will play an important role in preserving the future of the natural world.

James Freedman, the former president of the University of Iowa and Dartmouth College, said, “In bestowing an honorary degree [of which there is a long tradition in American higher education], a university makes an explicit statement to its students and the world about the qualities of character and attainment it admires most.” David A. Gottfried, with his many environmentally charged ventures, perfectly exemplifies that statement. Gottfried, shown right, is the founder of the U.S. Green Building Council, a “coalition of leaders from every sector of the building industry working to promote buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live and work.” According to their website, the USGBC’s “core purpose is to transform the way buildings and communities are designed, built and operated, enabling an environmentally and socially responsible, healthy, and prosperous environment that improves the quality of life.” This coalition is currently the biggest of its kind in the United States, with 7,500 members and over 75 chapters throughout the country. Gottfried graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Engineering and Resource Management. On top of establishing the USGBC, Gottfried created the World Green Building Council, ASTM’s Green Building Committee, and was one of many to set up the Industry Alliance for Interoperability. He is also the founder and CEO of WorldBuild Technologies, Inc., an environmental consulting firm based in Berkeley, California. Gottfried has published numerous articles, given hundreds of speeches throughout the world on various topics mostly focusing on spreading environmental awareness. Gottfried recently wrote a book entitled Greed To Green, in which he discusses balancing business obligations with social responsibility, and argues that conscientious companies fare better in the long run. It is Gottfried's belief of balancing between successful business and social responsibilty that is beginning to revolutionize the real estate industry.

The U.S. Green Building Council’s most effective tool in spreading environmental awareness is its recently developed rating system called LEED. Their system, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, has become “the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings.” This rating system is revolutionizing building production, offering a set of credible and consistent standards that green builders can use at their disposal. The LEED rating system focuses on five areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, energy efficiency, water savings, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality. There are thousands of prominent buildings that have used this rating system, including Accenture’s offices in San Francisco and the Los Angeles Convention Center. If this system were to become mandatory with all new buildings, or a sort of government reward system were established, energy efficient buildings could increase substantially.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, more than 85 percent of the energy consumed in the U.S. comes from fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas, 18 percent of that coming from individual homes. If not for leaders and visionaries like David A. Gottfried, the future of the natural world would be in great danger. Buildings play such an important role in energy consumption throughout the world, a problem that is not being addressed as frantically as it should. It is important that buildings constructed in the future have as small of an imprint as possible. The number of buildings will constantly increase, however, their energy consumption could be considerably reduced through a number of different methods. If organizations like the USGBC continue to make this issue known, a big step could be made towards a less detrimental way of life.

The environment is becoming an important issue with the American people; it is beginning to shape our everyday life. With that said, if we are to truly save the environment, we must be environmentally aware in every aspect of life. Individual efforts to limit energy consumption do have a powerful effect on the environment; however, it is energy conscious industries that will make the largest impact. David A. Gottfried is leading one of the most prominent world industries towards environmentally conscious energy consumption, and in doing so, is setting an great example for the world to follow. If he were to give a commencement speech at the University of Southern California, he would stress the importance of social responsibility. He would preach that being socially and environmentally responsible does not mean that business will suffer. Most importantly, he would tell the graduating class that their actions over the next few decades, the choices they make, will shape the world for many years to come.