UNLOCKING HUMAN POTENTIAL

I-O psychology program prepares leaders for the workplace

Call it the “Shark Tank” of CBU.

Each semester, students in the Master of Science in Industrial and Organizational Psychology program find a client, investigate their workplace challenges, conduct research and provide solutions. Then they present their findings and recommendations to an audience that includes CEOs from the community for evaluation.

Sometimes the audience likes what they hear. Sometimes they don’t.

And that’s part of the program.

In those experiences, “the students are asked to fail. You only learn when you fall down,” said Dr. Nathan Iverson, program director. “The next semester, they work twice as hard.”

I-O psychology is the science of people at work, the combination of business, psychology and statistics, Iverson said. Alumni typically work for governments, in city and county roles, or as consultants, providing solutions to fix a challenge, whether it be high turnover or low employee satisfaction or challenges on inclusion.

The program’s approach encourages students to try new things.

“You’ll have a safe place to learn from failures. For a lot of people, failure is a bad word, but failure is where growth happens,” said Teanna Fink-Keith (’23), who started the I-O psychology program at another university and then transferred to CBU for the program’s hands-on approach.

CBU students do a consulting project every semester, even their first semester. Iverson is not aware of another program that offers that. Students usually work with a different client each time, allowing them to graduate with two years of consulting experience.

“The consulting projects taught me about asking questions, being genuinely curious and listening to the challenges an organization faces,” Fink-Keith said. “It’s about what my client wants and what I have the ability to give them. It’s a practice I still incorporate with my current job, and it’s been invaluable.”

She now works at Southern California Edison in the human resources enterprise learning and development department where she supervises training programs.

The program equipped Gonzalo Munoz (’21) with a comprehensive understanding of organizations and how to analyze and develop solutions. He is now a senior knowledge analyst with Boston Consulting Group.

“It taught me to always have a growth mindset, to believe that if you work and hone your skills, you can achieve what God wants you to achieve,” Munoz said.

For one of her projects, Rachel Teel-Bardon (’21) partnered with Olive Crest, where she now works as a recruiter. She said she learned about motivation, change management and leadership development in the workplace.

“The majority of my growth came through the student consulting projects where we were pushed to form real connections with community businesses and partners to create practical deliverables for their business's needs,” she said. “To see my graduate experience come full circle into my current role is really rewarding.”

The program has a 90% retention rate. For Iverson, the program succeeds not only because of the practical experience it provides but also the relationships developed with the students.

Each fall, he takes the new group of students on a team-building retreat to a local Bible camp. He also holds gatherings at his house, allowing students to learn from each other and connect.

Munoz, who is from Spain, attended undergraduate school in the U.S. He said he enrolled in the I-O psychology program because he felt called to help large organizations thrive and become catalysts for positive change.

“I wanted a program that would allow me to learn and apply concurrently. I also valued CBU's values and mission of living your purpose. Being a person that has a very strong sense of purpose through God, I wanted a place that would fully support this vision,” Munoz said.

He was part of the United Nations team for the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

“My role is full of challenges every day, which keeps me growing. Navigating complex systems, meeting urgent deadlines and having to think critically to solve real-life questions are very challenging,” Munoz said. At CBU, “the supportive community and emphasis on purpose-driven work have continuously inspired me to strive for excellence.”

Teel-Bardon encouraged I-O students to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the program.

“The most valuable part of this program is the connections you will make along the way,” she said. “Your classmates, professors, mentors, all will be valuable assets for the future and will remind you of your purpose when things get hard.”

Iverson often quotes John 10:10: “I came so that they would have life and have it abundantly.”

“That's why we equip people. Because Jesus came to give life and life abundant. That means it's Jesus’ heart that I equip my students for abundant life,” Iverson said. “I love that whether our students are Christian or not, they're being equipped to make the workplace more kingdomly.”