On more than one occasion in the past few months, Mendoza has come under fire for being inauthentic to its mission to “Grow the Good in Business.” As current seniors mere days away from graduation, we’ve been fortunate enough to experience firsthand that this is not simply a slogan, but something to which the College is unapologetically committed. Any perception to the contrary is simply an oversight.
Mendoza both houses and actively champions two entities fully committed to advancing its mission: the Business Ethics and Society Program as well as the Business Honors Program. The BESP Department employs nine renowned faculty members, many philosophers or theologians by trade. The department offers over 10 courses, two fellows programs and the “Business and the Common Good” minor. Students engage with economists like Adam Smith and Karl Marx alongside great Catholic thinkers like Thomas Aquinas and Pope John Paul II. Coursework is designed not only to educate students in business and economics, but to shape them into capable, ethical leaders.
The Business Honors Program is similarly driven, with a unique and succinct mission to engage with “the moral purpose of business and how it can contribute to human flourishing.” Students take upper-level honors courses both in and outside of their majors, receive personal and professional mentoring and participate in Colloquia with model business leaders. They take their developmental core theology and philosophy classes within the program, with an emphasis on integration of these disciplines with a business education. Students are encouraged to examine not just how business operates, but how they might view it as a vocation in order to serve the common good.
These programs illustrate Mendoza’s participation in our University’s institutional commitment to be a force for good in the world. Its guiding motto, “grow the good in business,” can be best understood in light of three key ideas it embodies, the first being that there is inherent good in business itself. Throughout human history, business has allowed us to trade and explore, expand and cultivate relationships, innovate and develop technology and improve our overall quality of life. It is fundamental to our existence as humans. In his 2013 apostolic exhortation, “Evangelii Gaudium,” Pope Francis wrote, “Business is a vocation, and a noble vocation, provided that those engaged in it see themselves challenged by a greater meaning in life.” There exists a deeper truth that business, when rightly understood and properly practiced, is oriented toward something greater than itself, a vision Mendoza aims to instill in its students.
But the motto does not stop at recognition of the good, the second key idea being that there is room for growth. Business is not perfect, and never claimed to be. We presently face unprecedented costs of living, volatile job markets, a rise in the capabilities of AI technology and much else causing general feelings of uncertainty about our future careers. It is natural to feel disheartened and critical of modern business practices, but the real ethical shortcomings will not be overcome by renouncing the morality of business and all those who engage in it. Instead, we face a deep need for grounded, principled leaders who will guide business in a better direction and these leaders are exactly the kind Mendoza seeks to form.
Thus, the third implication of the motto is not merely aspirational, but a direct call to action. We are not meant to avoid business because it has, for so long, been deemed immoral. Instead, we are called to embrace our duty to morally engage in it and encourage others to do the same. It won’t change unless we change it, and Notre Dame, specifically Mendoza, is where that change begins.
Emma Prestage and Libby Meister
Class of 2026
April 30
