Individualized Business

Pursue your specific business interests

Blaze your own path with Penn State Shenango's Individualized Business major.

Develop a program of study based on your specific business career interests with guidance from a faculty advisor. Students pursuing this major might pair business with information sciences and technology, communications, health care, or other coursework to pursue studies focused on their unique interests and plans.

This level of customization allows students to prepare for a variety of business administration careers, including opening and running a small business.

You’ll love the Individualized Business major option if…

  • You want to become a business professional who’s equipped to adapt to the ever-changing workplace of the future
  • You are interested in an academic challenge with theoretical and practical focus in a competitive yet collaborative learning environment
  • You want transferable skills in the business sector
  • Developing a broad knowledge of business operations interests you

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Individualized Business career opportunities

The Individualized Business major offers a breadth of unique specializations for a successful administrative career. While job titles and salaries can vary greatly, the average business professional reports a salary of $65,000 – more than $10,000 above the national average.

Business analyst 

Prepare to pursue careers in applying business analytics techniques to implement appropriate decision-making outcomes using data for companies.

Entrepreneur

Discover how to pursue entrepreneurial careers with emphasis on idea generation, opportunity analysis, new product creation, and business plan development.

Finance administration

Learn how to become a finance leader with course emphasis on wealth management, tax planning, risk management, and financial analysis.

Health care manager

Become a specialist in the health services sector with emphasis on the financial and administrative aspects of health care enterprises.

Information technology administrator

Build a knowledge of business technology with courses that blend technical knowledge and administrative skill to land a career in every industry, including consulting, business, government, defense, entertainment, and medicine.

Project manager

Learn the skills to develop new projects, manage timelines, and coordinate procurement and project delivery systems. From developing a new product to constructing a new building, the list of efforts that organizations must plan, manage, and deliver (ideally on time and under budget) is nearly endless.

Continuing your education

In addition, earning your Business degree at Penn State can lead to a master's or doctoral business-related degree, such as a master’s degree in business administration (MBA).

Business student talks with friend outside

What to expect in the Individualized Business major option

Penn State’s Bachelor of Science in Business is a professionally-oriented business degree program that combines the core business disciplines of management, marketing, finance, and supply chain management, with applied study in a practical setting. This Business degree offers a range of “options” or areas of focus, such as this individualized offering.

Through the choice of an 18-credit individualized concentration, you will specialize in a business sector that is unique to their interests through interdisciplinary coursework and internship experiences.

Shenango’s Business major also offers areas of concentration in Accounting and Marketing and Management.

The interdisciplinary Individualized Business concentration includes courses that emphasize oral and written communication, active and collaborative learning, team-building, critical-thinking, and problem-solving skills.

Graduating with a Penn State Business degree offers you endless career options, while the individualized concentration uniquely positions you to have a competitive edge.

Credentials for your interests

Beyond Penn State Shenango’s expanding list 4-year and 2-year degree options, the campus also offers dynamic minor and certificate programs to compliment your major and career goals. Explore our academic programming options.

Get ready to meet your success team

Designed as your one-stop-shop, our Academic and Career Planning Services suite houses the offices of Academic Advising, Career Services, and Registration in one convenient location. Your personal adviser will guide you during academic planning and career counseling during orientation, all the way to your final semester when it’s time to land an internship and file your graduation forms.

Teachings with roots in innovation

Penn State’s University-wide Invent Penn State initiative brings innovative and entrepreneurial resources to every campus, giving you the resources to think creatively in classes and the inspiration to pursue your passions. With expert faculty and the VenturePointe Innovation Hub, we’re excited to help you achieve your daydream.

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We're excited you're ready to become a Penn Stater! Now's the perfect time to get started on your application. If you need help getting started, check out our guides to apply for first-year, transfer, or adult students. 

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Individualized Business major option courses

You will work with a faculty adviser to select 18 credits of coursework that compliment your core business administration classes with offerings from other areas of study including communications, human resources, health management, financial planning, or many other options.

Review the full Business course listing for additional requirements and a sample of the program’s structure.

Basic Management Concepts

You will learn the fundamental principles and basic concepts of management, with emphasis on organizational design, management processes, leadership, motivation, and managing teams and individuals in a global business environment. Understanding these principles and concepts is extremely important for students preparing for and entering the business profession.

Principles of Marketing

You will become introduced to marketing in domestic and international environments, with particular focus on segmentation, positioning, and targeting. By the end of the course you will have demonstrated knowledge of marketing’s relationship to other functions and processes in a business organization, and will be able to provide real world examples of challenges and issues related to marketing.

Negotiation Skills for Business Professionals

This course integrates the experiential and intellectual components to prepare you for business negotiation in a range of situations.

Corporation Finance

This course provides a basic understanding and framework of how firms acquire, allocate, and control their financial resources. It covers the acquisition and management of corporate capital, analysis of operations, forecasting capital requirements, raising capital, and planning profits.

Strategic Business Planning

This is the capstone course for the series of business administration courses in the Business major. To cumulate your knowledge, you will develop strategic plans in multi-industry, multi-cultural, and multi-national settings with emphasis on sustaining competitive advantages.

Two business student study by the nittany lion shrine

Gain Individualized Business experience before you graduate

Our Individualized Business major is designed for you to complete an internship in your senior year that facilitates the application of your classroom learning in a field setting.

This opportunity is designed to provide students with firsthand experience with both challenges and rewards of the business professional in our local communities, a design that sets the major apart from other business administration programs in the region.

Business majors have completed internships in a variety of businesses and organizations related to:

  • Amusement and entertainment
  • Business associations
  • Chambers of commerce
  • Community organizations
  • Manufacturing
  • Technology
  • Transportation and business logistics

 

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