Introduction
“Establish WKU as a regional lighthouse to provide resources, attract talent, and nurture intellectual capital in the communities we serve.”
– Western Kentucky University Strategic Plan
“The school demonstrates positive societal impact through internal and external initiatives and/or activities, consistent with the school’s mission, strategies, and expected outcomes.”
– AACSB Standard 9: Engagement and Societal Impact
"The mission of the Gordon Ford College of Business is actively support and engage students, faculty, staff, and community in academic and lifelong professional development, providing the foundation needed to lead in today’s diverse business environments."
– Mission of the Gordon Ford College of Business, WKU
The strategic plan item from WKU and mission for the Gordon Ford College of Business referenced above are not distinctly different than those of many other regional comprehensive universities across the United States. Regional comprehensives generally strive to serve our communities and the businesses and stakeholders that make up those communities, and we work to provide our students with concrete, transferable skills to meet the needs of the businesses in our own communities and beyond. We engage in the community for the win-win, to provide resources to local businesses and to secure experiences for our students in working with real businesses through applied projects. With Standard 9 published by AACSB now emphasizing measures of engagement and societal impact for accredited colleges of business globally, we have a third, critical call to engage our students in creating positive societal impact. Via Standard 9, AACSB accredited colleges of business are now measured and judged on our performance in addressing this strategic initiative and advancing our mission. While there are myriad ways to address the call to be a regional lighthouse, create societal impact, and foster an applied education mission, student consulting projects are a means to address all three, showcasing well-defined, measurable impact in the classroom and community.
Student consulting projects are a component of experiential learning and are widely employed in business education models across the United States (Canziani & Tullar, 2017). Generally, student consulting projects are client-based and engage students in working with a business to conduct a feasibility analysis, create or evaluate a business model or plan, or research the market to determine opportunities for the business across functional areas (Canziani & Tullar, 2017). Such work has been shown to support the community and develop alumni relationships (Madison & Chawla, 1998); thus, further advancing the mission of many regional comprehensive universities. While student-led consulting projects can take on a variety of forms at any level in the curriculum, students learn to apply theory to practice and think critically, which are key success factors for any undergraduate experience (Cook & Belliveau, 2006; Canziani & Tullar, 2017). With these broad parameters, student consulting projects provide resources to the business community, demonstrate positive societal impact with tangible outcomes, and build a foundation for students to enter and lead in both large and small business contexts.
While student consulting projects provide a clear means to address regional strategies, applied education missions, and accreditation standards, they are also a component of High Impact Practices (HIPS) (Kuh, 2008), and facilitate a mechanism through which collaborative, multidisciplinary curricula can move forward on college campuses. Student consulting projects, as a high impact practice, are inclusive community builders for students and have been shown through research to improve retention (Conefrey, 2018), particularly for vulnerable student groups, such as first-generation students. Such projects help students develop skills that can shape their growth as responsible community members, who better understand the role of small businesses within communities. These experiences help students put human faces and real-world constraints with small business names to more fully understand the decision-making frameworks and obstacles that business owners face.
The purpose of this research is to provide discussion around and illustration of how university strategy, applied education mission and accreditation standards can integrate under the umbrella of student consulting projects. While these are obviously not the sole means to address engagement and impact, student consulting projects provide an effective means to innovate and engage students within and outside the classroom, and to yield measurable, sustainable impact for the community. To do so, we explore how through these structures, universities can curate currency and leverage future opportunities. In the following section we provide the history and structure of these programs in our own institution to lend context. Then, we provide key points for curating currency, addressing student demand, examining return on investment for such projects, creating and measuring impact, and using such activities for positive promotion for the university and community simultaneously. Finally, we build on these sections to provide some key insights to opportunities that exist through student consulting projects moving forward, and how programs and universities can enhance their value proposition to multiple stakeholders utilizing these models.
Student Consulting Project History and Structure at WKU
As a high-impact practice (Kuh, 2008), student consulting projects through the Small Business Institute® at Western Kentucky University have traditionally culminated in a capstone project experience. Each spring, a relatively small number of graduating seniors from across the Gordon Ford College of Business enroll in the entrepreneurship capstone in lieu of the traditional case-method strategy capstone alternative. Although the student consulting experience began in the early 2000’s at WKU, some variability in delivery had occurred over time with faculty turnover. Within the past 6 years, this course has focused on 4-6 community, small business clients with typically 20-30 students enrolled. From spring 2015 to spring 2020, these consulting projects addressed the needs of 28 clients, involving 142 students in more than 7,800 consulting hours. Students engaged in these projects through the alternative capstone format, won 5 national Project of the Year student consulting project awards through the SBI®.
Although published research confirms the value of student-led consulting projects, we have likewise examined their impact on recent graduates. In 2019, the Gordon Ford College of Business surveyed recent alumni who had graduated between 2012 and 2018. This survey yielded 116 total responses. All students in the college of business at WKU take courses in a business core curriculum. This survey examined the effectiveness of this core curriculum in preparing students for career success and relevance in their day-to-day roles. The results indicated that the student consulting capstone course we offer, was rated on average a 4.84/5.00 in terms of relevance to recent alumni career success. This was the highest rating of any course in the college of business core curriculum. The traditional case study strategy capstone, in comparison, was rated at 3.84/5.00. Further, when asked how often students use the topics from these core classes, where 1 = never and 5 = every day, recent graduates, on average, rated the student consulting skills and knowledge at 4.32/5.00. This was the second highest rating of any core course, only behind the course which covers basic computer and Microsoft Office literacy. The takeaway here is that student consulting projects provide students with relevant skills used in their day-to-day work life, and that they recognize the value derived from these experiences.
As is the case for many universities, the 2020-2021 academic year has been an untraditional one at WKU. Due to staffing shortages the consulting capstone course was placed on hold for spring 2021. Resource shortages, however, often breed creativity. Given the importance of applied learning and experiences to Generation Z, and the call of the university to engage students in the community, we created an additional student consulting experience structure. The basic entrepreneurship course at WKU, ENT 312 is a general education (Colonnade) course. Students from across the university can enroll in this course to fulfill the systems thinking requirement for general education, and oftentimes the make-up of sections for these courses are 30-50% nonbusiness majors. While this is not a capstone experience, incorporating smaller-scale consulting projects into this course creates an opportunity for students to engage in collaborative projects and community-based learning – both critical elements of HIPS (Kuh, 2008). Although smaller-scale, students are working with live clients in the community to solve real business problems with value-added solutions. The response from both students and clients thus far has been overwhelmingly positive.
Two sections of this course have partnered with a local nonprofit, the People’s Opportunity Program for Underserved Populations to assist five clients with their businesses. POP-UP is a program housed under the local Housing Authority’s nonprofit arm, and is designed to provide low interest loans to low income and minority entrepreneurs. Such collaborations allow students to see directly how their value-added solutions can help resource constrained start-ups grow in key areas. By mid-terms in spring 2021, students had helped with multiple issues including social media plans and mock-ups, website redesigns, and logo and marketing materials designs for their clients. While these are not capstone level projects, they will continue to be an integral part of this course into the future, particularly given the research that exists on the importance of student consulting projects as a key learning, retention, and career preparation tool. Further, the written and oral communication components of these projects allow for critical pieces of assurance of learning for SACSCOC or AACSB accreditation.
Student Consulting Projects Create Measurable Impacts for Missions and Goals
Every strategic objective, mission, and standard must have measurable impacts. Student-led consulting projects can provide a very effective means to do so. While the benefit to students and the community through these projects are undeniable and meaningful, faculty and administrators also take on these projects with enlightened self-interest. For these student consulting projects to yield benefit beyond student learning and the single community business that was central to the student consulting project, they must be strategically tracked, measured, and publicized. But, questions then arise as to how to do this most effectively.
The answer to this question is generally, “it depends.” However, as faculty and administrators, it is critical to determine what metrics are needed. Perhaps it is the number of students engaged in such projects, the number of clients, student time spent engaged in the community, student time spent on strategic recommendations, time community businesses spend on campus, etc. To ensure the greatest accuracy in reporting, professors who have long conducted student consulting projects have a time log for students to complete as a weekly check-in. This is a best practice for ensuring more accurate record keeping related to class time, team meetings, project work, client meetings, etc. This also allows for an impactful summary across the course for the amount of time students spent engaged in their community and provides a helpful comparison of teams’ effort levels. For an example spreadsheet that can easily be reproduced for teams in Google Sheets, please see Appendix 1.
To further enhance legitimacy, universities can also enter student consulting projects into competitions, such as the Small Business Institute® Project of the Year competition. Winning awards lends credibility to the caliber of work being conducted, since schools in these competitions are benchmarked against one another in national competition. Further, competitions like the SBI Project of the Year competition typically allow winning teams to present their projects, which engages students in student research-type experiences, yet another high impact practice.
Student consulting projects have undeniable benefits to students, clients, and faculty and administrators. They provide means to engage with the community in “town and gown” type efforts, and make students more employable, yielding enhanced return on investment for their degree. While these arguments are straightforward and supported by research, administrators are accountable for reporting on this engagement and tying it to strategic priorities. At WKU, the hours logged with the community have been reported in SACSCOC accreditation reports, AACSB reviews, and to the University President as a metric for the strategic plan. Local news agencies often find these sorts of projects of value for interest pieces, with measurable impact for local business success. Engagement in these projects is a memorable "story’ that admissions counselors can share with guidance counselors and parents. Students win, the community wins, faculty win, and the college and university win. Research and practice support the value of student consulting projects. The challenge is keeping them current, as student and client needs change, to continuously meet strategic objectives, missions and calls for engagement. In the subsequent section, we highlight how to curate currency with these projects across stakeholder groups.
Curating Currency with Student Consulting Projects
Generational Currency
According to a number of recent surveys, Generation Z (Gen Z), born after 1996, currently matriculating through universities, possesses some unique characteristics from their Millennial generation predecessors (Parker & Igielnik, 2020). Gen Z prefers hands-on projects and problems and wants to conduct analyses to apply information during class time (Nicolas, 2020). As employees, late Millennials and early Gen Z graduates rate their soft skills as significantly better than employers rated them on a number of factors (Cengage, 2019), including working with others in teams, ethical judgment and decision-making, written communication, critical thinking, analyzing complex problems, and applying knowledge (Hart Research Associates, 2015). The gap between employers and employees on these measures was substantive. Further, more than 85% of employers surveyed believed it was critical for universities and colleges to provide students with the skills and knowledge to complete an applied learning project, and almost 75% of respondents indicated such a project would improve career preparation (Hart Research Associates, 2015). In another recent survey, 60% of employers indicated that critical thinking skills are lacking among recent college graduates (Payscale, 2016).
With regards to learning preferences, Nicolas (2020) reports that Gen Z students prefer exact direction on assignments and have little desire for creative assignments. Given the learning preferences of these students and the problems noted in the workplace, student consulting projects can help to fill a critical skills void moving forward. In a survey of more than 2000 Gen Z workers, respondents indicated preference for self-directed learning approaches, and research by Seemiller and Grace (2016) suggests that socially conscious, engaged curriculum allows Gen Z to see learning tied to tangible change. Student consulting projects facilitate both self-directed learning and socially engaged curricular approaches to learning, which puts them squarely aligned with both employer needs and student preferences.
Studies also indicate that Gen Z students are more vulnerable and less optimistic than their predecessors and that as many as one in three report dealing with mental health issues. As such, fostering feelings of self-efficacy and a having a sense of belonging are critical to Gen Z for maintaining motivation and persisting in college. Adding to the mix is recent research (Gillen-O’Neel, 2021) which confirms that a sense of belonging is the highest contributing effect to student engagement for the Gen Z. The same study found that factors such as low student-to-faculty ratios might mitigate the absence of a wider social support group. Further, research demonstrates a faculty member may serve as a “special person” (Ma & Shea, 2021) in the social support group that contributes to the student’s ability to overcome the challenges of adjusting to college life. Student consulting projects yield self-efficacy and provide a team atmosphere for work, which cultivates belonging. Faculty engaged in student consulting project courses often create a greater bond with students, given the mentor/mentee relationship these courses require. As such, student consulting projects not only check boxes on academic preparation, they can also fill needs for social support.
Currency in Showcasing Value of University Educational Experiences
Recently the conversation among students, parents, university administrators and policymakers about the increasing cost of a college degree has escalated. More often the decision about whether a student should enroll in college, and more importantly, should a student or family make the expenditure, has centered on estimating the return on the investment (ROI). However, the attempt to determine such a return is fraught with difficulties since the calculation contains more than mere numbers or even hard data for that matter. Inputs such as the cost of tuition, books and lodging are more straightforward than outcomes such as employability and personal growth of the student. A new framework for examining degree ROI (Blagg & Blom, 2018) focuses on minimizing risk for students not only during their enrollment stage but also throughout their college career. There are five key decision points that influence ROI: 1. College application, 2. College selection, 3. Program selection, 4. Continued enrollment and 5. Employment. While it is understandable from an economic perspective that estimating a true return is elusive, it is exacerbated for low income or first-generation students, as they tend to over or underestimate the value of education. Of particular interest to this work is the program selection decision point. For instance, how can a program of study, and more specifically class assignments, contribute to a higher payoff to the student? In turn, the ability of the program to better prepare the student to secure employment and long-term career success ultimately has a ripple effect in the overall social economic fabric. A direct benefit (Blagg & Blom, 2018) of increased earnings due to a college education leads to increased tax revenues. Policymakers weighing decisions on how and where best to invest monies in postsecondary institutions may well be influenced by programs demonstrating the ability to deliver job and career success. Moreover, university administrators therefore are likely to attend to and garner investment in such programs because of the ultimate two-fold dividend to students and the institution.
Students entering college now arrive not only with expectations about basic amenities like campus-wide internet connectivity; they also want the benefits of advanced learning opportunities (Arnold, 2018). In a way, their expectations are creating demand for new educational and community-building frameworks that institutions of higher education must quickly adapt to in order to attract and retain the Z generation as well as first generation students. One of the ways that universities can meet the expectation of advanced learning opportunities is to focus on classes and activities that develop the leadership capabilities and skills of their future graduates. Students who learn and begin to master leadership skills are more effective and thus more successful in the workplace. Roos (2014) contends that the best way to prepare students for employment is to give them direct exposure to the real problems that companies face, as well as allow students to be actively involved in the resolution of those problems. Student led consulting projects are an advanced learning opportunity that allows leadership development and problem-solving. Moreover, Garrett (2016) emphasizes that experiential learning outside the classroom, which emphasizes innovation and entrepreneurship, is the learning model of the future.
In the current environment, university administrators already have their hands full with managing budgetary concerns, faculty issues, accreditation, and student enrollment in the midst of an ever- changing environment that requires a value statement for the increasing cost of a college education for an ever-shrinking college-aged demographic. Faced with these responsibilities, administrators readily embrace faculty created and managed frameworks that satisfy both the demands of students and the business community. Student consulting projects yield advanced learning opportunities and graduates who are more employable due to their leadership skills.
Currency in Promotion
Storytelling is a critical component of the student recruitment process. Research suggests that consumers are more than 3 times more likely to trust information coming from a consumer than from the brand itself (Packard, 2019). With that, college and universities are handing over social media posts with endeavors like “takeover Tuesday,” engaging students in texting campaigns with prospective students, and getting students even more involved in the recruitment process. While this is effective, today’s students likewise want to picture themselves as part of the “story.” They want a place to belong, and ways to see a successful, meaningful path for them at the university. As we know from research, Gen Z likes to feel involved and to have purpose (Perna, 2019). Having students who are currently engaged in consulting projects document their experiences via social media (with client permissions on file) can be an effective way to show prospective students how they can have real impact on the community through a program. Not to mention, students gain transferable skills that make them more employable, and improve their lifetime earnings potential – the ROI information parents want to see. Research shows that enlightened self-interest is a critical component of doing good as good marketing (Peake & Eddleston, 2021). Prospective students must know what is happening within the program in order to integrate that information into their decision-making framework for college and major selection. Avid promotion of the benefits of students consulting projects can be an important component of promoting vibrant, meaningful messaging to current and prospective students. And, if the college or department is unsure of how to do this, consider engaging a student consulting team to help propose implementable and actionable solutions.
Currency in Filling Achievement Gaps
WKU, like many regional comprehensive universities, enrolls a healthy percentage of first-generation students. These students are the first in their family to attend college and compose a cohort that requires special attention. Not only do first generation students face unique challenges while attending college, they also face many hurdles prior to enrollment. Institutions such as WKU, which recognize these hurdles, are better prepared to provide students with the support and guidance they need. According to the National Education Longitudinal Survey (NELS) survey (Choy, 2021) students who have parents that do not hold college degrees are likely to have lower educational expectations and be academically less prepared. While there are several factors that contribute to college enrollment such as family income, educational expectations, academic preparation, parental involvement and peer influence, the biggest contributing factor is whether or not one parent holds a bachelor’s degree. So, while first generation students lack this major influencer, they also receive less assistance from their parents when applying to college and rely more heavily on help from their school.
Awareness of such factors inspired WKU’s strategic plan by establishing steps that help students become more academically prepared and strengthening relationships with high schools in the service region. The individualized Personal and Professional Development plan as well as the Comprehensive Advising Plan were put into place to assist all first- and second-year students, and most readily supports first generation students. WKU specifically seeks to lead efforts in partnering with K-12 educational institutions to create both a better-constructed path to college as well as a smoother transition to university life. Many universities are implementing similar campus support programs. The question then becomes how can we support these students in the classroom and keep them engaged? Student consulting projects may be a key solution to integrating “belonging” and “meaning” into the curriculum throughout their college career.
Recently scholars have conducted research to better understand first-generation college students (FGCS) and more importantly their unique challenges which include perceived barriers and career outcome expectations. Ma and Shea (2021) found that a sense of coherence, a frame of mind related to how one experiences their environment as predictable and consistent on a daily basis, is a significant factor in how students manage difficulties that in turn lead to positive academic and career outcomes. In addition, sense of coherence mediated the relationship between perceived barriers and career outcome expectations whereas campus connectedness moderated the relationship. Campus connectedness denotes the degree to which students feel a sense of belonging and closeness to other students. The reason such results are of particular interest to our work is that student led consulting projects can provide a true sense of meaning to students’ class work. The ability to analyze the problems of a business, along with their team, and recommend real solutions to solve issues is a highly tangible and meaningful experience that also fosters belonging.
While the above research offers significant insight, another study adds other important pieces of information to help solve the puzzle of how to help the “new student” entering college today succeed. Falk and Blaylock (2010) write that the traditional, 18 to 22 year-old residential student is on the decline. They define the “new student” as more non-traditional, in terms of both age and educational expectations, and also include FGCS in this cohort. One finding coincides with the above previous research in that this “new student” type may not necessarily look for more campus activities to feel connected, but rather seek highly career focused curricula and service learning experiences. Again, student led consulting projects help meet the needs of these students by offering interaction with businesses that lead to connections to real, potential employers and provide an opportunity to make a meaningful contribution in the business community. Falk and Blaylock (2021) also point to how this segment finds information about potential colleges. Unsurprisingly, the university’s website is the first stop and perhaps the only stop that many of these potential students make in their search. The ability to easily promote the success of student-led consulting projects on a university website and/or social media has real appeal and is both readily understandable and related to meaningful experiences and career-focused curriculum.
Opportunities Moving Forward
We have explored how to foster currency via student consulting projects. Now, we address three key considerations for the future in structuring student consulting projects.
Documenting Value in the Digital Age
Research demonstrates that student consulting projects add to the value proposition of an applied business education. They help sell the story for programs, and allow discussion with parents related to return on investment for their child’s education. As AACSB Standard 9 gains traction, colleges of business across the globe must seek out ways to measure and showcase societal impact. Student consulting projects tie strategy, applied mission, and Standard 9 objectives together in such a way that colleges of business can create concrete measurement of impact, along with crafting stories of the student (and community) experience. Further, such projects allow for intensive follow-up to continue to assess impact. Faculty and administrators can generate multi-stakeholder views that include the client and students during the project and the client and recent alumni one to two years post project. Employer surveys also allow for assessment of recent graduates to determine if students with consulting experiences, on average, perform better in their first job than those without such experiences.
Universities with an applied focus, tend to stress the importance of critical thinking, communication, and other transferable skills that enhance career preparation for students. As such, when offered as a capstone experience, student consulting projects create opportunities for students to share experiences from those projects in an interview setting. Multiple students have shared each year that their employer had questions about their experiences with student consulting and were impressed with what they had to share about the experience. These projects absolutely give students important, recognizable skills in applying their areas of expertise; however, they also help groom students as better listeners, more careful communicators, and yield understanding that most good work takes several iterations to be complete. Further, students learn about constraints in context, and how to frame solutions in ways that are palatable to a business owner and within his/her value system. Such skills are critical as students enter their first jobs and look to make impact. Having students speak to those experiences in testimonials as young alumni is good marketing.
Student consulting projects obviously yield positive impacts for students and community businesses. However, they also give programs the opportunity to curate stories, showcasing the strengths of their program. These projects, if carefully documented, provide valuable data to share in accreditation reports and strategic plan implementation updates. They can likewise showcase how a mission to provide students relevant and timely business (or other) education translates into practice. Further, in this area, Deans and Department Chairs within colleges of business are under increasing pressure to network in the business community in attempts to fundraise. Student consulting projects yield additional community ties and reciprocity. Positive experiences can lead to gifts from the business community and parents who are impressed with the efforts of the college to provide students an applied education, among others.
Although the Covid-19 pandemic initially brought challenges to student consulting projects, there are opportunities for growth that have arisen from the rapid adoption of videoconferencing technology. While it is preferable that students work with business owners in the university community, the now prevalence of video conferencing makes connecting teams to business owners easier than ever. For obvious reasons, it is valuable for students to conduct a site visit to understand the context and operations of the client’s business, but additional meetings can be held with videoconferencing tools, yielding more convenience for both the business owner and student teams. When removing travel time, additional meeting opportunities are often available, making the entire process more fluid and flexible.
The Value Proposition of Student Consulting Projects
Researchers argue that alone, the average university level education does not make students employable or prepared to meet the challenges or opportunities facing them upon graduation (Pardo-Garcia & Barac, 2020). Since the late 1990’s, employability has become a key performance indicator of the efficacy of university education (Lowden et al., 2011). This is growing ever more critical in the United States as attitudes towards higher education have recently shifted. For example, a 2019 Gallup poll of 2,000 American Adults (Hess, 2019) found that only 51% indicated that they see college as “very important,” compared to 70% in 2013. This is a rather dramatic swing in attitudes and somewhat alarming given the biggest age group responsible for this change came from 18 to 29-year olds. In 2013, 74% of 18 to 29-year olds saw college as “very important.” In 2019, that figure was down to 41%. Both the aforementioned research on Gen Z and more recent work (Pardo-Garcia & Barac, 2020) suggest that the value attached to skills over knowledge is increasing, since transferable skills create trainable, lifelong learners (Grotkowska et al., 2015). Student consulting projects yield exactly these experiences and transferable skills that both employers and researchers agree students so desperately need (Audet & Marcotte, 2017). Additionally, these projects address the call from scholars, accrediting bodies, and practitioners alike for a renewed focus on social impact (Rosenberg, 2021) and “making meaning.”
As part of this “call” to restructure the undergraduate educational experience, experts suggest that a more multidisciplinary approach to learning is key. While student consulting projects have a long history in entrepreneurship and management curricula (Canziana & Tullar, 2017) applied projects of similar nature are often available in myriad programs, from fashion merchandising to engineering to tourism to medicine to music. Research supports that students engaged with industry problems and contacts during their coursework often encounter more success post-graduation (Smith et al., 2009). If multidisciplinary approaches to education are an imperative and engagement with industry improves educational outcomes, student led consulting projects provide a critical means for bridging the divide and creating value for student employability and industry networking.
Programs, such as entrepreneurship, engineering, and the arts often converge to have students work in interdisciplinary teams for business and industry problems. Such projects teach students valuable skills, such as how to interface with other operational areas in order to provide comprehensive solutions to industry or business-specific problems. This requires students to synthesize soft skills and discipline specific knowledge, while working with others to provide viable business solutions across domains. Such capabilities improve employability and yield critical experiences for students to share and leverage as they move towards and through their careers.
Student Consulting Projects for the Future
As with any curricular method or experience, it is important to evaluate the structure and format for student consulting projects to ensure they are serving both student and client needs. In our experiences at WKU, we have seen a distinct shift in clients’ needs and preferences. Early-on, clients typically wanted a longer, more detailed written report. Currently, our clients prefer value-added activities such as website updates, social media plans, feasibility analyses for new products, customer research, etc., with future plans for continuation or implementation of the activity or item the student team created. Clients no longer want 50+ page reports. They want graphics, diagrams, videos and figures to guide them through the process of continuously deriving value from the students’ work.
Recently, our students helped a local ice cream and agritourism business conduct an industry analysis for a processor facility addition, which would allow them to utilize milk produced by their herd in the ice cream sold at the restaurant. Further, it would allow them to sell milk at grocery stores in the region. Students conducted blind taste tests for the business and provided an industry analysis, complete with consumer research, which the client was able to utilize in a grant application for value-added producers. The grant was awarded and our students and the university were recognized for their role in helping the client gather and write this information. The client had a very targeted ask, which we are finding to be more typical as we continue building client relationships. These targeted tasks often make great “bite-sized” projects for classes throughout a program, not simply a capstone format. If these client trends continue, more specialized projects will likely arise; creating more opportunity to integrate such projects throughout the curriculum.
Student consulting projects can vary substantially, depending on the course and client needs. Appendix 2 contains an example assignment for how these student-consulting projects can be implemented in a basic entrepreneurship course early in the major curriculum. This gives students across disciplines the opportunity to work together. Appendix 3 provides the example guidelines for a college of business capstone course which revolves entirely around a semester-long student consulting project. Although these projects are incredibly different in scale and scope, both tangibly and significantly benefit clients, students, and the community.
Conclusion
Student consulting projects are a time-tested pedagogical tool that can serve as a bridging mechanism for strategy, accreditation standards and university/college mission. These projects develop student connectedness, create meaningful experiences for a generation that values meaning, improve students’ networks, and enhance employability all while benefitting the community and creating economic value beyond the university. This work shares a contextualization for the student consulting model, provides strategies for curating currency through these projects, and provides key insights for future development of the project structure itself.
