BUSAD 594 is a class that enhances the professional skills of first-year MBA students utilizing an applied approach to learning. The course is offered in partnership with the Ivy College of Business and CyBIZ Lab. MBA student teams work on service-learning projects for local nonprofit organizations. The goal of this project is to further develop MBA students’ communications, collaboration, problem-solving, and leadership skills and to apply knowledge and skills learned in the MBA classroom to address organizational challenges in a nonprofit environment.
My team worked with Try Pie, a non-profit bakery in Waterloo, Iowa whose mission is to empower a diverse group of teenage girls by providing life and leadership skills through meaningful work. The goal of the project was to conduct a pie shipping feasibility study and provide the resources necessary to implement shipping pies into Try Pie’s business structure. Teams had ten weeks to consult their non-profit organizations and to prepare a competitive presentation for a chance to win a $1000 MBA Service in Leadership Scholarship (which my group won!!)
Contributed by Grace Christensen, animal science senior and concurrent MBA student