^{Caption: Emanual Langford ‘19 is one of Guilford’s new MBA students this fall.} 

For Bryce, upstart Guilford was the obvious choice. After spending the last four years at the College earning a degree in Accounting, he saw the benefits of a small college that offered a more personalized education. “I really benefited from the one-on-one education I got as an undergrad," says Bryce. "Why mess with something that worked the last four years?"

After several years of offering a Master of Criminal Justice as its only graduate program, Guilford tripled its foray in graduate studies, adding the MBA program and a Master of International Sport Management. Thirty-nine students are enrolled across the three programs. In addition to the 19 MBA students, there are 15 graduate students in the Criminal Justice program and five in International Sport Management.

“We’re beyond pleased with the (MBA) numbers,” said Michael Dutch, the Seth and Hazel Macon Professor of Business Management and Director of Guilford’s MBA program. “I think we’re only going to grow as word gets out into the community about what Guilford is able to provide.”

Guilford set out to differentiate its MBA program from others in the Triad By compressing the program into one year — August to August — as opposed to 18 months other schools traditionally offer. The College also offers its program in a so-called HyFlex format, which allows students to choose whether to attend classes in person or online.

Michael says the College is putting an added emphasis on the ethics of business into its program. “This isn’t going to be just a separate class we include on ethics,” he says. “(The ethics to business) started with the first class and will be touched on every week with every new topic.”

Because the Sport Management program received its accreditation so late in the summer, the school had little time to properly advertise. Still, it attracted five students, differentiating itself from other Sport Management programs by adding international-focused elements to its curriculum.

“All things considered with the timing, I think we did amazingly well,” says Ann Proudfit, Guilford’s Project Director for Academic Strategies. She says many North Carolina schools already offer Sport Management as a bachelor’s degree, making those students natural applicants for Guilford’s master’s program in the coming years.

“I think that program will do a lot better as we continue working and partnering with those schools or with employers in the field of sports that could benefit from their employees having a master’s degree to help them progress in the field,” says Ann.

Ann says the College is exploring other graduate programs for the future, including a Master of Arts in Teaching program to complement Guilford’s Education Studies undergraduate program.