Why Business?

Faithful, effective Christian education transforms people to see the world from God's perspective. In fact, the abandonment of this purpose, intentional or otherwise, explains why so many historically-Christian schools are now indistinguishable from their secular counterparts, and it further explains why even some schools that do retain Jesus in their mission statement then crowd-out Jesus from their curriculum.

By contrast, Messiah University, and in particular the devoted men and women of the Management & Business Department, continue to build their programs from a Christian worldview, incorporating the faith into the very DNA of the curriculum. We believe that God has a particular point of view about business, leadership, economics, accounting, and so forth, and that He wants that to be the view of His followers. He has revealed it through both the special revelation of His Word and the general revelation of our study of His creation (e.g., our theoretical and empirical discoveries).

So in any given business class, you'll find professors challenging students to "think about their thinking," so to speak - to think about the assumptions underlying their answers and to examine those assumptions in light of Judeo-Christian principles. You'll find students discovering theologically-sound mental models for management and business, and professors mentoring them to become intentional about applying those models faithfully. And as you walk the halls, you'll find seniors thinking very differently than they did when they were first-year students, equipped with the intellect and character to pursue their vocations with both excellence and integrity.

It's a trap to think of "excellence" as merely a destination. If we do, either as an organization or as individuals, we risk complacency and stagnation when we reach a point we consider "good enough."

Rather, excellence is also a direction, an incessant striving toward something better, toward the next level of quality, toward continuous improvement. And in a Christian setting like the Messiah Business Department, the primary aim of that striving is to please God. "Whatever you do," Paul tells us in his first letter to Corinth, "do it all for the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31).

Perhaps that's why the Business program continues to grow in size and stature. When we first and foremost work to please God, He honors that faithfulness. Consequently, you'll find at Messiah excellent students who typically score in the 90th percentile on their major field tests, and you'll find distinctive programs in accounting, international business, and other business disciplines. But more than that, you'll find peers and programs that are getting even better every year. Excellence, we think, is not just a destination, but a direction.

See more student learning assessment data

Let's face it: Every college claims to embrace excellence as a distinctive. What you'll find in the business program at Messiah, though, is more than a place can deliver on that distinctive. You'll find a rigorous, God-centered program that continues to strive and to develop as you do.

Professors everywhere tend to teach out of their own experience. That bodes well for Messiah business students, since our faculty members not only have a wealth of professional experience, they have a wealth of global experience. Professors in the Business Department have worked or taught in Austria, China, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Germany, India, Lithuania, Mexico, The Netherlands, Russia, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

That's one of the reasons why they incorporate so much international and cross-cultural perspective in their courses. It's simply part of who they are.

It's also who Messiah University is. Ranked as one of the top ten "study abroad" programs in the nation, developing in students a global perspective has long been our specialty. And specifically in the Business Department, you'll find our International Business Institute to be a leading global business education program among Christian colleges and universities.

It's a priority for us that your educational experience yields an abundant return in the form of exceptional knowledge, skills, and abilities, employability (or admission to graduate school), and a promising career trajectory. Messiah has a remarkable track record in this area, especially the past few years, with approximately 93 percent of graduates having secured professional employment within six months of graduation.

As with our other distinctives, though, our motives are not merely pragmatic. Job placement is part of our calling. We do not, for example, put a light under a bushel and we do not cultivate ambassadors only to sequester them to their own country (Matthew 5:13-16, 2 Corinthians 5:20). Rather, there's restorative work to be done in the world and our graduates play an important part in it. God invites His people to do this work in businesses, government, schools, the media, the arts, courtrooms, churches, missions fields and myriad other places - to be agents of His common grace by sustaining and renewing the institutions He created, and by serving all those created in His image.

So what you'll find at Messiah is a well-resourced Career Center, one of the finest Internship program teams in the country, and faculty who are connected to the local and regional marketplace - three big reasons why the vast majority of Messiah alums find themselves in meaningful professional positions soon after graduation.

To see where Messiah business students receive internships, click here.

To read more about where Messiah students get jobs, click here.