Ave Maria University

Connecting AMU To The
MARKETPLACE

A university-wide hub for professional training, corporate engagement, and innovation.

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Forming Virtuous Leaders For The Marketplace

“Students should realize the responsibility of their professional life, the enthusiasm of being the trained ‘leaders’ of tomorrow, of being witnesses to Christ in whatever place they may exercise their profession.”

St. John Paul II, Ex Corde Ecclesiae

Panel Discussion

The Leaders of

Learning From The
Leaders of

Program

The Institute is a program that complements the liberal arts and equips students with the training, network, and credentials to become marketplace leaders.

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Network

A robust network of leaders from all industries who guide our Scholars and give AMU real-time, market-driven feedback.

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Services

A differentiated model for corporate engagement and innovation. It is a crossroads to connect industries and ideas to every facet of our university.

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Frequently
Asked Questions

We form virtuous leaders for careers, graduate studies, religious life, and the public square. That is, Catholic liberal thinkers irradiated in the truth who can speak to anyone about anything while advancing human flourishing in the marketplace and public square.
AMU’s center for professional training for all students, corporate engagement for all companies, and innovation for disruptive questions.
Inspired by Elon Musk and innovation labs like Google X and Skunk Works, The Institute is designed to move fast.
The world is being disrupted and doubt is rising. Education must be rooted in the truth while reconnecting to the marketplace, producing value for students and real solutions. Tradition and innovation meet in The Institute.
The Institute connects great students, experts, and companies. It delivers premier professional training programs to all students powered by an expert network of industry leaders and a gateway of companies to hire them.
A competitive advantage: an unrivaled combination of network, training, experience, credentials, and direct access to jobs and grad school. America is a meritocracy, and so is The Institute. Students compete, results are public, and excellence is rewarded. They learn how the real world works now, not after they graduate.
To apply the Liberal Arts. We train students how to think and how to do. They become thought specialists and technical generalists, mastering the core skills and experiences leaders need while pursuing specialized training.

The 10x Problem-Solving: Learn to think. Solve any problem using a framework inspired by the world’s best strategists.

The 10x Learning: Learn to do. Monthly, team-based challenges, from investing to AI, guided by experts to produce real solutions.

No. The Institute provides holistic professional, personal, and cultural formation to shape matchless graduates in any field. We reject the false choice between Gnosticism and Utilitarianism. Instead, we form leaders capable of reconsecrating industry and the public square, advancing human flourishing by the force of their example.

No major alone forms a leader, and not every major provides a clear path to the marketplace. The Institute bridges that gap.

The Institute collaborates, augments, and educates.

  • Collaborates: Brings together faculty, students, experts, employers, and alumni to solve real problems
  • Augments: Extends AMU’s liberal arts core and 35 majors by connecting classroom learning to the skills, experience, relationships, and on-ramps to the marketplace.
  • Educates: Provides structured, university-wide professional training for students of every major.

See how the 4 year curriculum of The Institute mirrors and augments any 4 year academic program.

Yes! The Honors College and The Institute are designed to complement one another. Honors forms students through a deepening of the liberal arts, while The Institute helps students apply the liberal arts. Together, they provide a uniquely comprehensive education that prepares students to think well, live well, and lead well.
A growing network of Catholic leaders from every industry.

There are two student tracks:

1) Scholars commit 15 hours per month, 300 hours over 4 years.

2) Participants commit 2 hours per semester, 20 hours over 4 years.

The Institute is 100% funded by companies and individuals. In return, these Sponsors get a premier talent pipeline, case studies, AI projects, and full access to AMU. We deliver value fast. Review our Annual Report.
Career Services is broken and overly mechanical, resume workshops and company presentations that few students attend. The Institute has built a new, disruptive model to form in-demand leaders: 300 hours of training solving real challenges, from AI to public policy, led by industry leaders.
Education forms the intellect and directs the will toward the good. Imagination is the catalyst which opens these powers of the soul to the vast array of human and divine goods. As such, the program is highly immersive, professionally, personally, and culturally. The Institute is both a lab for imagination and a center for practical education.
AMU is unique. Innovation is in our DNA. We built an entire town and a leading university from the ground up 20 years ago. There was a need, and we responded. Today, there is a need for virtuous leaders in a rapidly changing marketplace and public square. Traditional career services does not work. So, we built The Institute: a skunkworks for higher ed, to work in harmony with AMU while pursuing 10x breakthroughs for our students and the university.