Centers, Institutes, and Special Programs

Accelerated Cooperative Education Program

The Accelerated Cooperative Education (ACE) program offers a unique, challenging, and rewarding experience for business majors. Participants receive a program of workshops designed to build, strengthen, and enhance their professional development and leadership skills. Students complete a summer internship opportunity with catered advising and sessions to reflect on their professional experiences. Students are selected into this program through an application process and are active in this three-year experience until graduation.

Ciocca Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

The Ciocca Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship provides interdisciplinary opportunities for students to explore innovation, develop ventures, and bring new ideas to life. Through a network of mentors, collaborators, and experiential programs-including Innovation Fellows, Venture Virtuoso, Student Advisory Board, Idea Lab, B.E.A.C.H., Prep School, and Bronco Ventures Accelerator - students develop the skills and connections needed to move ideas forward.  Programs are open to all students from any major.

Experiences include pitch and venture capital competitions, field trips to Silicon Valley conferences and events, campus collaborations, and design thinking workshops. Through these experiences, students develop an entrepreneurial mindset—cultivating awareness of how their ideas can make a difference, empathy for those they seek to serve, optimism to see problems as opportunities, and the confidence to navigate risk and uncertainty as they turn ideas into action.

Leavey Scholars Program

The Leavey Scholars Program offers special opportunities for undergraduate business students who have established a record of excellence in their Santa Clara studies in their first year. In their second year, Leavey Scholars are invited to enroll in honors sections of selected business courses that are especially rigorous and academically challenging. Successful completion of the program provides the designation “Leavey Scholar” on the student’s transcript.

Leavey School of Business Community Fellows Program

The Leavey School of Business Community Fellows program places junior and senior year business majors in paid, yearlong internships in community organizations (e.g., government, nonprofit, or education agencies). Students apply business knowledge and skills to real-world situations in local community organizations. Participation is required  in a yearlong academic seminar (BUSN 183A, B, and C) which satisfies the Experiential Learning for Social Justice requirement in the University’s Core Curriculum. Students explore issues of economic disparity, community development, and organizational management as well as reflect on the professional development skills and abilities needed to be effective in a variety of business settings. Students are selected by application process.

My Own Business Institute

The My Own Business Institute (MOBI) is the world's leading provider of free online education for entrepreneurs. A community outreach initiative of the Leavey School of Business, MOBI aims to fuel dreams and confidence through free entrepreneurship education, and to help start businesses that create jobs and support community growth around the world. MOBI offers six online courses: Starting a Business, Managing a Business, Growing a Business, Quick Start Entrepreneur, Small Business Essentials, and the Sales & Marketing Badge Course. Many of MOBI’s sessions are available in audio and video learning formats as well as its standard text-based learning option. MOBI also provides numerous resources—checklists, templates, step-by-step guides, and worksheets—to help aspiring business owners begin their entrepreneurship journey with confidence. Content is available in English and Spanish. MOBI’s coursework and proven 24/7 learning management system are used by universities, schools, nonprofits, employment-readiness programs, economic development organizations, NGOs, and government agencies worldwide. MOBI students and alumni represent all 249 ISO recognized countries and territories. All participants are eligible to earn a Certificate of Completion from Santa Clara University and/or Digital Badge to demonstrate their achievement.

The MOBI curriculum and website are based on the work of Phil Holland, a successful entrepreneur and author of The Entrepreneur's Guide. By providing content that is engaging, understandable, accessible, and actionable, MOBI helps aspiring and experienced entrepreneurs from any background take the next steps in pursuing their business goals.

Neighborhood Prosperity Initiative

Launched in January 2012, the Neighborhood Prosperity Initiative (NPI) provides SCU undergraduate students with an opportunity to work directly with business owners from historically underserved communities in Silicon Valley, putting their business education into practice. The goal of NPI is to support economic opportunity in our most challenged neighborhoods while offering a community-based learning experience to our SCU students. NPI is a Field Studies course (MGMT 182A/B) which satisfies the Experiential Learning for Social Justice (ELSJ) requirement in the University’s Core Curriculum. As part of the curriculum, students and business owners participating in NPI will also complete the “Starting a Business” course offered by My Own Business Institute (MOBI) to establish a shared understanding of the foundational facets of entrepreneurship. MOBI, an institute within the Leavey School of Business, provides free online entrepreneurship education to fuel dreams and confidence for aspiring and established business owners around the world, as part of a community outreach initiative that promotes job creation and community growth through entrepreneurship. NPI is a two-quarter course offered in winter and spring available to sophomores, juniors, and seniors who can complete both quarters. NPI is available to students of any discipline, with preference given to students in the Leavey School of Business or those pursuing minors in Entrepreneurship or Management.

Retail Management Institute

The Retail Management Institute (RMI) is recognized as an academic partner to the retail industry. We have a strong reputation for developing strategic influencers with the advanced skills necessary for success in the new technology-infused world of retail.

RMI provides a platform for deep collaboration and knowledge at the intersection of retail and technology, engaging industry and leading academics in the emerging and evolving concepts impacting retail today. The knowledge generated from this collaboration forms the basis of the retail studies curriculum.

RMI has also piloted a Generative AI in Retail Workshop series consisting of five sessions, enabling students to earn a certificate and badge on LinkedIn, further enhancing their professional credentials in emerging retail technologies.

The minor in retail studies offered by the Retail Management Institute is an in-depth immersion experience that prepares and provides exposure to its students for a diverse set of roles including e-commerce, digital marketing, digital merchandising, planning and allocation, buying, and supply chain management. The program is open to all University undergraduates. Students entering the retail studies minor continue to major in their field of choice and receive their bachelor’s degree in that field.

Senior Leadership Academy

This academy provides undergraduate business seniors the opportunity at an in-depth exploration of a leadership topic relevant to postgraduate. Students are selected through an application process and participate in a two-quarter experience that includes mentoring, directed reading, and guided reflection. The program pairs each senior with an alumni mentor who provides one-on-one mentorship and support to discuss topics like personal and professional development, including career exploration and work-life balance.

Sustainable Business Institute

The Sustainable Business Institute (SBI) is an institute focused on creating transformative programs that empower students to become agents of positive change in an evolving global business landscape. Through practical research, undergraduate and graduate education, co-curricular programs, and corporate and community engagement, SBI will prepare future leaders to think about business with a long-term, sustainable mindset—one that creates value for companies while serving society and the environment.

The Sustainable Food System minor offered by SBI provides students with the opportunity to explore the intersection of global food systems and sustainability. Courses address the cultural aspects of food, food policies, nutrition,public health, social justice, sustainability, and opportunities for creating new innovation and change within the food system.