New Burgess Institute Offers Every Dickinson Student a Pathway to Business Success, Leadership, Impact
Burgess Institute Video Image
Video by Joe O'Neill; article by Matt Getty
New institute results from largest academic programing gift in the college’s history
This fall, thanks to the largest academic programing gift in the college’s history, Dickinson is launching a new institute that will create a formal pathway to help students with any major launch successful careers in business. The new Burgess Institute for the Global Economy is being established through a gift from Mark Burgess ’81, who credits his Dickinson education for his own success in business—which includes multiple stints as a CEO—but feels the college could take student career preparation to the next level.
“I loved the diversity of classes I was able to take at Dickinson and working closely with professors, and even designing my own independent study,” says Burgess, who is currently CEO of Mauser Packaging Solutions, a sustainable container company with over 11,000 employees. “And I know that, like a lot of other graduates, I gained the ability to look into things deeply, to be curious and to solve problems—all things that helped me in my career. But I thought, if we could add leadership development, hands-on experience, a grounding in how global economies work, industry-specific career support and connections with our strong network of alumni business leaders, then our students interested in business could graduate with a real advantage in the marketplace.”
To that end, the Burgess Institute will launch this fall with a range of initiatives, including:
- an executive-in-residence program featuring distinguished alumni from various fields visiting classes, leading discussions and mentoring students
- new and redesigned courses exploring business, finance and economic systems from a wide range of perspectives
- new Center for Career Development staff members providing industry-specific support in business and finance
- site visits and enhanced career exploration trips like past Winter Break trips to Google and Bank of America headquarters
- active learning opportunities through research, simulations, case studies, community-engaged learning, clubs, competitions, internships and alumni-sponsored course projects
- seminars and workshops on business ethics, financial literacy and artificial intelligence
- networking events with Dickinson’s recently formed Finance & Business Network.
“The hope is not just to help our students to get that first job after college but to prepare them for leadership roles in which they can make an impact across communities around the world for years to come,” says Senior Lecturer in International Business & Management Steve Riccio, the institute’s executive director, who led a faculty study group this summer to help professors from a range of departments develop institute-affiliated courses. “It’s been exciting to see professors make connections with the global economy from disciplines as varied as philosophy, religion, history and sociology.”
Rather than functioning as a new academic department, the Burgess Institute will build on Dickinson’s already strong liberal-arts foundation and programs in areas like international business & management and quantitative economics to offer business and leadership preparation for students with any major. In this way, the institute will serve as a kind of “business of” program for any discipline, opening new career paths and possibilities. Students will learn how to harness free-market enterprise to tackle contemporary challenges. And because of the institute’s focus on active-learning, they won’t just learn how business and capitalism can promote the well-being of humans, society and the natural world—they’ll experience this firsthand.
“The Burgess Institute will build on our already strong and innovative programs to prepare our students for the world they are entering,” says Dickinson President John E. Jones III ’77, P’11. “This will make Dickinson the go-to liberal-arts college for students who want to become tomorrow’s CEOs, leaders and difference-makers.”
And giving Dickinson that kind of edge in the higher-ed marketplace is exactly what Burgess hopes the institute does as well.
“I think of education as a business, and for any business to be successful, you need something that really differentiates you from your competitors,” explains Burgess, who is also a member of the college’s Board of Trustees. “Dickinson is already a great college with great faculty, great classes, and great study-abroad programs. But there are a lot of great liberal-arts colleges out there, so how do we stand out? Well, with this institute, now when prospective students look at the college and they see that they can get that great liberal-arts education and also get experiences in finance,business, leadership and a lot of other areas that are going to help them in their careers, then I think we have something that really differentiates us. Then I think we have something that truly makes Dickinson stand out.”
Burgess Institute Founding Investors
- Mark Burgess ’81
- Jim ’78 and Niecy Chambers
- George Hager ’78
- Mark ’71 and Harriet Lehman ’72
- Stuart and Pam Mathews P’21
- Doug and Terri Pauls ’80
- John Paz ’78
- George and Jennifer Ward Reynolds '77
- Gordon Wright ’83
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Published August 6, 2024