Anderson offers undergrad programs
The Anderson School of Management is offering two new business programs over the summer for undergraduates who want to get a feel for graduate level coursework.
Taught by UCLA faculty and staff, both programs will incorporate in-class education along with a variety of hands-on experiences – including guest lectures from industry specialists and off-campus visits.
The Business and Management Institute, offered for the first time this year, is designed to give students the experience of what it is like to be in an MBA program.
“It really struck us that there were not many formal opportunities for business undergrads at UCLA, aside for the accounting minor,” said David Unruh, assistant vice provost for Summer Sessions and Special Projects.
“This is an attempt to address the needs of continuing UCLA students and also open the opportunity to other UC, national and international students,” he added.
Also appearing for its first year, the Entertainment and Media Management Institute, the second of two programs, will take an in-depth look at behind-the-scenes management issues in entertainment and media industries.
Gigi Johnson, director of the Entertainment Management program for the Anderson School, said the program will take content usually taught in the graduate program and make it available to undergraduates.
“This is a good opportunity for undergraduates to get a broad sampling of entertainment business and to learn more about the employment opportunities in business management,” said Johnson, who will be teaching one of the institute’s two classes.
Though the Entertainment and Media Management Institute is a new concept, the Business and Management Institute will follow in the footsteps of programs already existing at UC Berkeley and Stanford University.
Unruh said UCLA students who had taken the program at Berkeley’s Haas Business School last year had informed him they would have attended an Anderson School course had it existed.
Both programs are four weeks long and are scheduled to begin on June 28.
Typically, students will attend class lectures in the morning and follow up with afternoon sessions consisting of workshops and guest lectures.
For the Business and Management Institute, students will take field trips every Friday with visits to the Pacific Stock Exchange and film studios already on slate, according to Anderson School lecturer Gonzalo Freixes.
“Not only do students get the credit for these two upper division courses but they get all other value added from the extras,” he said.
More information about the summer institutes is available at www.summer.ucla.edu/institutes.


