Dear CBA Undergraduate Community,

Welcome to the 2025-2026 academic year! Whether you're joining us for the first time or returning to the bluff, we are so excited to begin this journey with you. Our student engagement team has been busy preparing a full slate of programs, events, and opportunities designed to connect you with your peers, expand your skills, and make the most of your time in CBA.

As a reminder, CBA Advantage does remain a graduation requirement for all CBA majors and is listed in your Degree Works audit report. Students need to earn a minimum of 2,000 points in the Suitable app. 

Each activity will be linked to at least one of the five competency areas of the CBA Mission: Business Knowledge, Creative Confidence, Global Citizenship, Leadership Skills, and Moral Courage. While you are encouraged to explore all five areas for a well-rounded experience, there is no minimum point requirement for each category. Once you have earned at least 2,000 points in the Suitable app, your Degree Works audit report will automatically update within 24 hours to reflect the completion of your CBA Advantage requirement.

Throughout the year, you’ll find countless ways to engage beyond the classroom: guest lectures from industry experts, alumni panels, competitions, networking events, and much more. Each of these moments becomes an opportunity to not only grow, but to also reflect on how your learning connects to your academic experience and future career goals. By the time you graduate, the goal of CBA Advantage is for every student to have a meaningful record of these experiences in Suitable. In turn, this data will serve as evidence of how your time in CBA has prepared you for life after LMU!

Please remember that you don’t have to navigate this journey alone. Our student engagement team remains available to support you and answer any questions about CBA Advantage. Reach out to our team anytime at CBAAdvising@lmu.edu.

Go Lions!

Jacqueline Leung, M.A. ’14, MBA ’23
Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Student Success
LMU College of Business Administration

CBA Advantage Week is just around the corner! Join us in completing exclusive activities to kick-start your CBA Advantage experience.

Activities will activate on Monday, Sept. 15 at 12 a.m. and close on Friday, Sept. 19 at 11:59 p.m.

Finish all activities to earn a limited-time badge in Suitable as well as a limited-edition CBA Advantage prize!

Business Knowledge: take a survey about your transferrable skills!

Creative Confidence: provide feedback to the Undergraduate Programs & Student Engagement office!

Global Citizenship: tell us about an impactful LMU or CBA event!

Leadership Skills: share your CBA student organization experience with us!

Moral Courage: take a photo with a member of the CBA Student Engagement team!

Stay tuned for more details on the week’s activities by following @lmucba_studentengagement on Instagram!

Bonus: Once you’ve fully completed the badge, swing by the Undergraduate Programs & Student Engagement Office in Hilton 200 for this semester’s limited-edition prize: a CBA Advantage sweatshirt! 

If you applied to receive your degree in fall (December) 2025, please check your Degree Works to confirm whether CBA Advantage is a requirement. If CBA Advantage appears on your Degree Works and is not completed (unchecked), please be sure to have your 2,000 points submitted to Suitable by Friday, Nov. 14, 2025. For questions, contact CBAAdvising@lmu.edu.

Over the summer, we retired a few asynchronous activities in the Suitable platform. These activities were either underutilized, addressed in curricular spaces, or reimagined into new opportunities. The following activities have been removed:

Despite these removals, we are excited to share that new asynchronous activities have been added to the Suitable platform, offering fresh ways to engage and grow through CBA Advantage.

CBA Advantage Virtual Workshops will resume this month for those who need a refresher on how to get started. You can always check the full schedule (and Zoom link) on our Get Started page of the CBA Advantage website.

The Zoom link for all workshops will be: https://lmula.zoom.us/j/82078998797

Push notifications are messages sent directly from our student engagement team to your Suitable app. We plan to use this feature periodically as another layer of communication with important reminders to students. To receive the notification, students need to download the Suitable app (this is a mobile-only feature) as well as enable their notifications (notification tab >> tap Turn On App Notifications). Don’t miss out on important reminders!

When submitting a reflection to Suitable (written or video), here are some tips for a smooth approval process:

We want to highlight that CBA Advantage is bound by LMU's Academic Honesty policy, much like curricular coursework would be and our review team will flag any submissions that may conflict with any of the above and follow-up with the appropriate parties, as necessary. This will cause a delay in the approval process for all submissions that need additional review.

Students will receive an email notification for any submission that is denied as well as most approved submissions. Submissions that are denied will outline the reasoning behind the denial, and students will have the opportunity to correct their submission and resubmit on the Suitable app for the appropriate activity. Please be conscious of any submission deadlines associated with the original activity. Any questions about this process can be directed to CBAAdvising@lmu.edu.

As a reminder, please continue to check CBA Connect, CBA Social Media, and/or other CBA marketing channels to learn about CBA-wide events. Most CBA-wide events will also appear as CBA Advantage opportunities in the Suitable app. Here are a few upcoming events.

CBA Career Connections Office Hours
Professor Mitch Rufca is once again holding office hours in Hilton 102 on Tuesdays & Thursdays from 2 – 4 p.m. and by special appointment here. He can assist students with resume review, job search strategies, interview prep, networking skills, negotiations and more. Students can earn 40 points once per semester for this activity, regardless of how often they utilize office hours. The event host will have a QR code for students to scan.

LMU Real Estate Certificate Program
The LMU Real Estate Certificate Program equips students with conceptual, practical, and specialized skills and knowledge of various real estate topics. Led by industry professionals (primarily LMU alums), the program features a series of seminars that cover a variety of topics.

For each seminar, students can earn 50 CBA Advantage points. The program is open to all LMU students and held in the Hilton building. The seminars scheduled for this month are listed below. Learn more and register here.  

LMU Family Business Entrepreneurship Conference
Friday, Sept. 5 | 8:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. | LMU Playa Vista Campus | Register

All are invited to attend our 5th annual conference, "Cupcakes, Capital & Growth: Scaling Family Brands," featuring a group of visionary family business leaders. Candace and Charles Nelson, founders of Sprinkles and Pizzana, will share how they transformed a single cupcake bakery into a national sensation. Powerhouse brothers Anand and Mitesh Gala, franchising experts behind some of the fastest-growing restaurant and hospitality ventures in the country, will discuss how they scaled their family brand into a multi-unit, multi-brand enterprise. Family business expert Rob Lachenauer will also speak. Earn 150 CBA Advantage points by submitting a short reflection after the event.

LM-UMatch Speed Interviewing Event
Thursday, Sept. 11 | 5 - 7 p.m. | McIntosh Center (UHALL 3999) | Register

Student-run recruiting service LM-UMatch is hosting a mock interviewing event where a group of professional recruiters from a variety of industries come to campus to conduct short mock interviews with students. Please sign up for a 30-min. slot via the registration form. Earn 100 CBA Advantage points by submitting a short reflection after the event.

Accounting Ethics Lecture: Paul Munter
Tuesday, Sept. 16 | 7 - 8 p.m. | Hilton 100 | Register

The R. Chad Dreier Chair in Accounting Ethics Distinguished Speaker Series welcomes Paul Munter, former chief accountant of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), for a special lecture: “Serving the Public Interest as a Professor, an Audit Partner, and SEC Chief Accountant.” In a fireside chat with Professor Larry Kalbers, Munter will reflect on his career journey and share insights on the evolving regulatory landscape for capital markets, including the roles of the SEC and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). Earn 100 CBA Advantage points by submitting a short reflection after the event.

Careers in Finance Alumni Panel & Networking Reception
Wednesday, Sept. 24 | 5:30 – 8 p.m. | Hilton 100 & Lobby

All are invited to attend the finance alumni panel discussion and networking reception. Panelists will be announced shortly. This event is sponsored by the Dunfrund Leadership Fund and LMU Finance Society. Earn 100 CBA Advantage points by submitting a short reflection after the event.

Please Note: To search for ALL asynchronous options, please select “Activities” --> Select “All” from the categories listed --> Type “asynchronous” into the search bar.

Fall 2025 CBA Advantage Week Badge

Available exclusively between Monday, Sept. 15 – Friday, Sept. 19

Visit the CBA Advantage website for an overview of the program and its requirements. If you need a refresher or help getting started, visit the Get Started page for information on our synchronous and asynchronous workshops and training opportunities.

We're here to support you in completing your CBA Advantage journey! Feel free to reach out to CBAAdvising@lmu.edu if you have further questions or if you wish to make an appointment with someone on the CBA Advantage team.

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