From business student to law scholar

Learn more about the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA).

Emily Mulroney never expected a farm to change how she saw business or her future. 

And while she had opportunities to get her hands dirty, the assignment at the farm at Royal Roads University was to propose business ideas to engage the surrounding community with the farm. The connection to the bigger picture just grew from there.

“Royal Roads was the catalyst to feel this sense of not just learning about circularity but embodying it. That has been transformative,” she says of the practice of making the best use of resources and minimizing waste across the entire production and consumption cycle. “It allowed me to have a lived experience of the impact, benefit, and enrichment that comes from that kind of work.”

School work for the real world

Mulroney, Class of 2023, was drawn to the BBA’s focus on innovation and sustainability. Looking at the group work and real case studies, it was also clear the program offered work experience while getting a degree.

“It was really great to get to actually work with a big range of different clients, because every client has very unique expectations,” she says. “The client work taught a lot of adaptability. I felt proud of what I was presenting because I was presenting it to someone who was then going to use my work.”

Working as groups rather than individually reflected workplaces, and by working together, “everyone had their unique role and within that role could be a leader,” she says.

“Right from the get-go, we did a lot of work on group dynamics and understanding individual strengths and how to bring those to a group to make it stronger,” she says. “I quickly realized that everyone I worked with had something to contribute, and we could learn about each other enough that everyone had a sense of purpose or role.”

The flexible admissions process also made it a perfect fit, she says.

“I had a whole bunch of life experience that I knew was valuable, but I needed to demonstrate to employers that I was employable,” she says. “I wanted something that has purpose and to do something meaningful.”

Applying business skills in new ways

With the BBA in hand, Mulroney is applying her new skills to law studies in the University of Victoria’s Juris Doctor & Juris Indigenarurm Doctor program. 

“A lot of what I learned in the BBA was adaptability. In black letter law, there is a need to be very specific in how you write, but there is also a lot of creativity in how you argue. In the BBA, we had to use a lot of creativity to think outside the box and meet the client’s needs,” she says. “In law, there are a lot of the same principles. There might be legal precedent we can work with, but we also need to look forward. The BBA taught me to look for how things could be.”

Looking back on the experience, she says it really has come full circle. She ended up volunteering for the farm and learned how to grow her own vegetables. Her sense of accomplishment has deep roots, too.

“I didn’t realize how capable I was until I started the program. I got such great feedback from clients, and I felt the program really matched my values,” she says. “I felt so motivated to do well and I ended up highlighting a lot of skills I already had.”

Learn more about the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA).