Supply chain management B.S./M.S. expands eligible student pool
Accelerated program opens beyond business administration majors studying project management
By Cody Boteler on July 8, 2020
Through its diverse array of programs and areas of study, Towson University continues to offer students opportunities for success in quickly growing career fields.
Two years ago, the College of Business & Economics (CBE) started an accelerated program where students can earn a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s degree in supply chain management in as little as five years. The first students to complete the program have just graduated.
“It was a great opportunity,” said Ashanti Johnson, one of the program’s first graduates and a student who transferred to TU. “I definitely felt prepared to start my career.”
Johnson now works in project management at Wilmington Trust, a subsidiary of M&T Bank.
“When I was looking for different jobs and going to different interviews, TU had a lot of great resources to help,” Johnson says.
Programs and events from the Career Center and within CBE helped hone her interview skills.
Because interest in the supply chain management master’s program has grown, CBE has expanded the pool of students who can apply, says Natalie Scala, an associate professor and director of the program.
Until now, the only students eligible were those studying business administration with a concentration in project management and business analysis. But a change implemented this spring term opens the program to business administration students studying any of the 11 ancillary concentrations.
Accepted students can take up to three courses during their undergraduate studies that count toward their master’s, Scala says.
“ I think you’ll see sustained jobs, if not growing job opportunities in this area, as the economy recovers from the coronavirus. ”
Scala says Towson University was the first school in Maryland to offer a master’s degree in supply chain management and that its students benefit from strong one-on-one faculty interaction.
“We are a community here,” Scala says.
Dominique Hawkins, another one of the first group of graduates from the accelerated program, says enrolling was a no-brainer.
“The opportunity to have a master’s and a bachelor’s within five years, it sells itself,” she says.
Hawkins was recently promoted to a demand planner position at Pandora Jewelry. She says the program at TU was rigorous, the courses were applicable to her field and they have helped her in her career.
“I think the program is very useful in today’s time. Supply chain management is such a growing field,” she says.
Scala, the program’s director, agrees that the economic outlook for supply chain careers is a good one. Delivering packages and groceries, organizing hospital emergency rooms and moving medical supplies around the country all involve supply chain jobs, she says.
“I think you’ll see sustained jobs, if not growing job opportunities in this area, as the economy recovers from the coronavirus,” she says.
This story is one of several related to President Kim Schatzel’s priorities for Towson University: TU Matters to Maryland and BTU-Partnerships at Work for Greater Baltimore.