Nancy Bagranoff. Robins photo
P&Q: What does that career and professional development look like at Robins?
Bagranoff: We have a signature experience called Q-camp. It’s a boot camp that’s pretty well know. It has had a lot of attention because it is a great model. When students enter the business school, in January of their sophomore year, they have the opportunity to go to a weekend professional development boot camp. We actually take them offsite to a hotel and it is competitive — not everyone gets to do it — but, out of our class of 250 or 280, about 180 do it. We think competing for that is actually a good thing. During that boot camp, we talk to them quite a bit about what they need to do to get ready in the future and what careers look like. They really get immersed in the idea of being in a professional school and the career opportunities available and the support. We work very closely with our career center, which is centralized, but we also have a person in our school dedicated to careers and professional development full-time. That sort-of hybrid approach has worked very well for us.
I like to say that we give our students a tray with so many opportunities on it and they just have to pick off the opportunities that suits them. And that can be going on trips to visit alums in different industries — we do trips to Wall Street, we did a trip to Silicon Valley this year, we do trips to D.C. to visit consulting companies. Students can also go to a series we have called Focused Fridays, where we give them professional development workshops in a number of different areas — they can learn how to use Bloomberg well and Google Analytics. We also have a lot of industry-specific programs that help them get prepared for work in those industries like Training the Street. We also have a banking bootcamp that we do over the semester. It’s just a huge array of programs. We have a speaker series where we bring in people to talk about different things. These things have all just grown like Topsy.
Another one that I really love that we do is we have executives in residence. Our model is a little different from the executives in residence model other schools use. We have at least two executives in residence and one entrepreneur in residence for undergraduate students. And these are people that have had very successful careers in certain industry areas who we hire to spend at least one day a week on campus with us, working with students as super mentors. That’s been a really successful program. The students have access to these individuals and they use their time to get a lot of counseling and help from them.
P&Q: What changes have you seen, generally, across the business student population over the past few years?
Bagranoff: I think they have become very savvy customers. They really know what they want and have high expectations for us. And I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. But they don’t do well if they don’t feel like the instruction they are getting is very good and at a very high level. And I think that is really true everywhere. Before I was here, I was at a state school and saw that evolution a bit, too. They are having high expectations for their education, support, and professional development. They would be dismayed if they didn’t get the opportunities to develop and be prepared for their job interviews and their careers.
Also, they care a lot about diversity and inclusion themselves. They welcome others and want to be on teams with people who are different from them, which is a good thing. We also have a big study abroad program — one of the bigger ones — because half of our juniors leave for an entire semester, which is really an odd thing. Our fall semester is different from our spring semester because half of our juniors are gone during the fall and half come in from other places around the world. That helps give us a global atmosphere and I think students appreciate that. They want global opportunities.
P&Q: Can you elaborate on how those expectations have any affects on how you all operate at an administrative level?
Bagranoff: I work very closely with the students — it’s one of the things I love about being at a school this size. I have a student advisory council, and they give us a lot of input on what we’re doing well and what we’re not doing well. It’s usually curriculum and career support-based — you know, based on their preparedness what they think we’re doing right and what we’re not doing right.
For instance, for our strategic plan, we had many different listening and focus groups with them. We put together focus groups of not just our top students, but we tried to create a set of students across the board — some of them weren’t doing as great academically and some were our rock stars — and asked them what they thought we should do. And we got some interesting feedback that impacted the strategic plan. Having more events where faculty and students can interact — that’s something they care about. They really do like to meet with faculty.
P&Q: Switching gears a little bit, what advice do you have for high school students that are hoping to study business at Richmond or a peer school? What are some things they should be thinking about and doing ahead of time?
Bagranoff: You know, I think just studying hard and doing well. That’s really what it’s about. I would say, they should think about the type of school they want to attend in many different ways. We are a school that’s demanding and many of our peer schools are, too. Not every student really wants that challenge. So they should think about if that’s something they are really seeking.
They also have to understand and think about if they really want an education in which they are very active participants. In our small school with small classes, students do not have an opportunity to hide. They have to participate in their own education. I think that creates a really special kind of graduate, but it’s not for everyone. And so they should think about that. Are they someone that is really introverted and wants to sit back and have the teacher talk to them and go home and do their work and come back? Or are they somebody who wants to help lead the classes?
P&Q: What about parents of high school students? What is your advice for them?
Bagranoff: Try to guide the child gently but let the child go on their path. I would say that it’s rare to find a student who attends the wrong school. But if you force them to go somewhere or do a certain major, that’s an issue. I always hope the parents help the student find their passion and fulfill that. Business is not for everyone. I love business school and think it’s great, but not everybody wants to do it. So if the student wants to do something else other than study business and you’re concerned about careers, look for opportunities they have to advance their passion area with maybe a few business classes or a summer business program or something like that. We offer a Summer Business Institute that they can take and get an overview of business but they don’t necessarily need to major or minor over it.
P&Q: We’ve been hearing that parents are more and more involved in their student’s education these days. Is that something you all are seeing?
Bagranoff: Oh, we know that. Yes, they are. I have four kids that went to college and I dropped them off. And it’s not that way today. And in some ways that’s a good thing. The parents are interested and they do stay in touch a lot. And social media, I think, enhances that a bit. Students and parents text back-and-forth quite a bit. I know when I went to school there was a Sunday afternoon phone call and that was kind of it. But, I think social media does keep students in touch with home more than they used to be.
P&Q: Do you have any final thoughts?
Bagranoff: There is one thing I would say and that’s that at Richmond we have the teacher-scholar model. And a lot of schools talk about having a teacher-scholar model, but here, I think we emphasize the teacher more than other places. We’re really dedicated to and focused on our teaching and being great at it. And that comes first.
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