Mindfulness is part of business at Bentley

A FEW YEARS AGO, PROFESSOR OF MANAGEMENT Joseph Weiss started seeing the magic that happens when business curriculum includes spirituality themes. His course "Life Calling and Career Strategies: The Spiritual Journey" asked students to deeply consider their purpose in life. The teaching veteran of 20-plus years then began incorporating contemplative methods like meditation and a module on every person's heroic journey into his MBA leadership course.

Now, thanks to grant money awarded by the American Council of Learned Societies, which is used to fund voluntary faculty workshops, Weiss can inspire colleagues at Bentley College in Waltham, Mass., to try out various contemplative methods, such as reflection, centering prayer, and meditation, during instruction. The initiative provides opportunities "for students to get in touch with their inner strengths and energies, and to express themselves in ways that are creative, innovative, and different," Weiss says.

And, yes, there's room for that at a business school. "Our administration is very committed to the whole student and to enabling students to have both a liberal arts as well as a business background," he adds.

Provost Robert Galliers says the college has a tradition of putting business into context by marbling global perspectives and business ethics throughout the curriculum. While the great majority of undergraduate students come to Bentley to major in a business discipline, 30 percent of faculty covers arts and sciences. And many students add a second major in one of those areas.

From Weiss's workshops to Bentley's service learning program, which asks students to step back and reflect upon their community experiences, Galliers says it's all "part of this reflective approach we're trying to adopt."

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