As Riley Consenheim finishes up his second year as a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) student, he is happily reflecting on his choice of social science elective for the past semester—Introduction to Psychology.
Consenheim was given a list of ten social science subjects to choose from. As a TRU BBA student, he must take six credits (two courses) of electives each from social science and humanities disciplines over the course of his degree.
This interdisciplinary breadth means BBA students complement their business studies with a broad liberal arts education, something that employers are looking for. Consenheim, who plans to major in economics, settled on psychology to meet his social science requirement.
“I read the course descriptions. Psychology is about the way people think, and economics deals with how people interact with the market, so it will add to my economics degree,” said Consenheim, noting he finds the study of psychology also applies in his part-time job as an electronics salesperson because he can apply his knowledge of how people behave.
A survey of BC employers shows that an interdisciplinary education is also in demand in the professional business workforce.
A Conference Board of Canada survey of 854 BC employers indicated a concern over a lack of essential skills in the workforce such as critical thinking, literacy and communication skills—the so-called “soft skills” Consenheim and other students gain from their liberal arts electives.
A recent Globe & Mail article also supports this idea, pointing to the need for business schools to be innovative, supporting the evolution of business programs to meet the reality of today’s competition.
As for Consenheim, he plans to fully jump into his new-found academic interest, pursuing a minor in psychology.
And he’s glad to be doing it at TRU. Hailing from Kamloops, he originally planned to transfer after two years, but he’s realized the small class sizes at TRU are key in his success as a student.
“My favorite thing about TRU is the close, personal relationships I have with my profs. They actually know me, we joke around, I can actually have conversations with them,” he explained, adding that comments he heard from friends at larger universities reaffirmed his decision.
“My friends at larger universities tell me about their lecture halls with hundreds of student in the class. I know everyone in my class, we can actually have debates in the classroom.”
Aside from the smaller class sizes, another unique TRU offering that set Consenheim up for success is open admission to the BBA program. Open admission allows new first-year students in arts, business, science or computer science to take any necessary upgrading to meet the prerequisites for their program, at the same time that they begin courses for their degree.
For Consenheim, this meant he could complete the high school math equivalencies he needed for his BBA requirements through University Preparation (UPREP), while also being enrolled in first-year business courses.
This summer, Consenheim continues to take advantage of the flexible course offerings, registering in two summer session classes, allowing him to lighten his course load for next year so he can balance his studies with part-time work and the life of being a student.
