At the College of Business, you won’t just gather in classrooms to analyze and discuss things you’ve read in a textbook. You’ll learn by doing. By engaging in powerful, impactful educational experiences, you will apply what you have learned in different settings to gain knowledge, build lifelong friendships, engage with alumni and mentors, cultivate your personal growth and much more.

Study Abroad | Mentorship, Internships and Externships | Competitions | Research Experience for Undergraduates

For many students, the time spent studying abroad is one of the most significant periods in their academic studies. Long afterward they continue to discover that the immersive experience of another culture pays dividends throughout their lives as they navigate new social and global career environments.

The Antwerp, Belgium study abroad opportunity for students who have been accepted into COB 300 not only satisfies the COB 300 requirement, it allows you to blend classroom theory with excursions to vital European businesses and historic sites, providing cultural experiences that broaden and enrich your understanding of European business practices.

In addition, each year brings new business-major specific study abroad opportunities, with past trips traveling to countries such as Panama, Columbia, France, Prague and the UK.

Not all learning happens in a classroom, and not all of your experiences will come from being on campus. That’s why we have the Office of Professional Development and Engagement (OPDE). They’re here to help with preparation, programs and information on mentorship, internships and externships.

The OPDE created a Career Mentor Network LinkedIn group that connects knowledgeable College of Business alumni with motivated students for mentorship that can extend far beyond simply understanding your career options. Anyone can network on LinkedIn, but this COB-only group uses mentorship to supplement your classroom learning with skills to navigate your transition into the working world.

The programs and resources of the OPDE are here to help you land that important internship or externship—or both. From resume building workshops to job and internship feeds, you’ll have all the tools you need to stand out from the crowd. 

The economics department awards academic credit for internship experiences through the ECON 394 class, which must be taken concurrent with the internship. Consult the current JMU Catalog for further details about the class, or the Internships for Academic Credit page.

Competitions offer more than just the end prize. 

They make academic material come to life as students work in teams to analyze and evaluate outcomes, develop innovative solutions to real-world business problems and present their ideas to industry professionals. 

A prestigious annual event for all majors is the Rainey-Shepard-Kushel Business Plan Competition, the final rite of passage for a select group of student-teams from the required COB 300 integrated business core course. The competition resembles a venture capital fair, as aspiring entrepreneurs pitch ideas to potential investors with more than $25,000 in scholarships and prizes riding on the outcome. Over the event's 20-plus years of existence, founder Don Rainey ('82), Russell "Rusty" Shepard ('86), Rick Kushel ('87) and a host of other JMU alumni and business professionals have provided ongoing financial support and have also given generously of their time and expertise as competition judges.

One economics major-specific competition is the College Fed Challenge:

For more than ten years, select JMU economics students have participated in the College Fed Challenge, a monetary policy competition sponsored by the Federal Reserve.

This is a national collegiate-based program where undergraduate students research and analyze economic conditions and then present their monetary policy recommendations to a panel of judges who are economics experts.

The 15-minute presentations are followed by a Q&A that tests the breadth of students’ economic knowledge. The finalists in the Richmond-based regional grouping go on to compete at the national finals at the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C. 

As a future business leader, you’ll need to know how to gather and analyze data to help make the best possible decisions for your company. Our Research Experience for Undergraduates program will help you learn the process of conducting independent research in the business disciplines. 

As an undergraduate research assistant, you’ll make valuable connections with JMU faculty as you collaborate on research topics of mutual interest, learning a wide range of research skills such as reviewing literature, developing surveys, collecting and cleaning data, and analyzing results. These experiences may also give you a competitive edge in applying for graduate school.