Education In Action

Opportunities for experiential learning in Baylor's Hankamer School of Business empower students to make an impact in the real world--and give them an edge entering the workforce.

When Drew Byrd graduates from Baylor's Hankamer School of Business with a Master of Business Administration (MBA), he will already have several lines of relevant real-world business experience on his résumé--among them: managed the multimillion-dollar Phil Dorr Alumni and Friends Investment Fund, one of the country's largest student-managed live portfolios; advised and created small-business plans for prison inmate entrepreneurs; and analyzed active marketing objectives and recommended strategies to top executives at the DISH Network.

These are just some of the experiential opportunities available to the nearly 3,000 undergraduate and graduate business students in the Hankamer School of Business. Programs are designed to help students learn by doing in real-time, real-world scenarios that bridge the classroom to the career world. 

"Everything that I learned [through these programs] carries over to the real world, adding significant value to my education," says Byrd, president of Baylor's Graduate Business Association and a major in the U.S. Army who will put his MBA, along with a Master of Science in Information Systems, to work in the Army. "I especially learned about managing people and how to get different personalities and styles to work together to accomplish a goal," he says. 

Working together in a team environment under time pressure helps students learn leadership, team dynamics, self-discipline and time management, says business school dean Dr. Terry Maness, BA '71, MS '72. "The more that students become partners in the learning process, the more meaningful their education becomes to them," he says. "The students grow from these experiences; they're learning in a different way."

And it's this application of knowledge that company recruiters are looking for, adds Maness. "These experiences help solidify what the students have learned. They're able to demonstrate to potential employers that they can get results."

Living the business life now

The risks and rewards of producing real-world results are on the line in one of the most coveted opportunities in the business school: managing the Phil Dorr Alumni and Friends Investment Fund, a live portfolio worth about $3.6 million (at press time). In the practicum, which is open to only a select group of MBA candidates and undergraduate students each semester, students manage real money under the guidance of investment professionals Brian Bruce and Brandon Troegle. The experience includes analyzing about 20 stocks and recommending changes if needed with the goal of outperforming the S&P 500. 

Distributions are used to fund student scholarships in the MBA program and athletics department. To date, the athletic department has received $1 million in scholarships from the fund. A portion of the fund's annual distribution is also used to support the on-campus Southwest Securities Financial Markets Center, an ultra-high-tech classroom complete with tote boards, tickers and video conferencing capabilities. 

"Baylor's student-managed portfolio is unique because it's designed after how Brian Bruce managed stocks at PanAgora Asset Management, where he was the head of equities," says Dr. Bill Reichenstein, chair of investment management. "As long as the students beat the S&P 500--which they did even in [the volatile market of] 2008--it's a success." 

Matt Brown was among the undergraduate business majors to manage the fund this past semester. "This class was the one that best prepared me for my career; I felt less like a student and more like an employee," says Brown, who attributes this experience, along with networking with Baylor alumni, to his securing an internship at Goldman Sachs this summer. "There's only so much you can learn through a textbook. This real-world experience helped me put all the pieces in the puzzle together."

The desire to offer students more real-world experience led to the creation last year of Uproar Records, the only business school-based music label in the United States. The program provides Baylor undergraduates with the opportunity to run every aspect of a record label--from marketing and promotions to sales and distribution. Uproar Records released its first album, featuring tracks from 12 Baylor students, in April.

"A new business model is evolving right now [among music labels]," says sponsor Charles Fifield, a lecturer in marketing. "Having our students in the laboratory--what we call Uproar Records--is a great way to explore all these innovative ideas that the labels and artist management companies are actually trying."

"Uproar Records taught me a lot about the importance of project planning and how to incorporate the skills I have learned in the classroom to actual projects," says Mandi Jones, BBA '09. "It really showed me and the others on the team how to put all the pieces together. I've had the opportunity to network with several different companies, which ultimately led to my internship with Disney Theatrical in New York City last summer and the opportunity to intern with Word Distribution in Nashville this summer."

"It's been a great concept for students who have a lot of interest in music to experientially be involved in something that is an ongoing business venture," Fifield says. "Combine this with their internships, and they'll be more valuable to employers, which is what we're trying to prepare them for--to get a job in the industry they want to be in."

Like the music industry, experience is also a must in the fiercely competitive sports and entertainment industry, which is why students in Baylor's Sports Sponsorship and Sales (S3) program--the only program in the U.S. to provide a focused major in sports sales--must serve two internships. Before graduating, students will have "been there, done that" by selling ticket packages for the Texas Rangers, interning with a professional sports team or major media company, and staffing a call center.

"Our students have a leg up; they're ahead of students from other schools," says Dr. Kirk Wakefield, MBA '81, associate S3 program director. "When our students are on an interview, the question is not 'can you do these things,' because they've already done them. These internships often lead to job opportunities."
 

As an undergraduate in the S3 program, Allison Ahlgrim, BBA '09, interned in the sports marketing department at State Farm Insurance and worked on a real-time sponsorship project for AT&T and the Cotton Bowl. She also sold tickets for the Texas Rangers and Baylor Athletics--experience, she says, that directly led to her landing her first job on the new business team with the Phoenix Suns, a position she had lined up months before graduating. 

"Through S3, I have a solid foundation for a successful career in sports. I've done things I'll be doing when I step into the workforce," says Ahlgrim. "I've also been put in front of great people who will become my network to mentor and advise me throughout my career."

Stepping into the workforce in the here and now is integral to the business school's Focus Firm, a semester-long required MBA course in which 30 students are taken behind the scenes of a real company to work on an active issue--be it operational, promotional, financial or behavioral--that the company is facing. Student teams interact with key personnel at the company, research and analyze issues, and present formal recommendations to executives at the culmination of the course. 

In essence, the students are living the life of a company executive, balancing the challenging responsibilities of work and family, as well as school. 

"Most students don't want to sit in a classroom all of the time. They like the interaction and the examples that fellow students bring back to the classroom," says Laurie Wilson, BBA '84, director of graduate business'admissions. "They also want to apply the theory that they're learning today to see if it works in live companies--without having to wait to graduate and join a company."

Since many of the students have some work experience already, such opportunities also provide what Wilson describes as "aha!" moments in which both old and new theory becomes crystallized in the applied context of current business practices. 

Students also benefit from the strong relationships that the business school faculty has cultivated with leading executives of many Fortune 500 companies over the years. This past semester, Baylor partnered with AT&T for the Focus Firm course. Other companies that have participated previously include DISH Network, Continental Airlines, 3M and Dell. These are the kinds of companies and connections that students can tap into when launching their careers.

Crossing cultures and serving communities

Baylor business students are also bridging relationships with companies in China through the Immersion Into International Interdisciplinary Innovation (i5) technology entrepreneurship program. Now in its third year, i5 is a partnership among Baylor's School of Engineering and Computer Science and the Hankamer School of Business, the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Hong Kong Baptist University, American University and Thunderbird University.

Through the six-week summer program, about 15 to 20 graduate and undergraduate students travel to China to assess start-up technology businesses (both U.S. companies expanding into China and Chinese start-ups), analyzing issues ranging from technology assessment and intellectual property to marketing and financial planning. The results provide the "story" for the company to tell about their technology for objectives such as raising money and communicating with employees.

This year, students will team up on seven or eight projects with partner companies such as global technology leader Hewlett-Packard, which will sponsor two projects. On the other end of the spectrum, another team will work with a sole proprietor/inventor, who will accompany the students as they evaluate the business prospects and manufacturing plans for an invention related to solar energy. The U.S. students partner with Chinese students to address the issues as well as learn international dynamics. The graduate students arrive in China before the program begins to complete an internship at the company.

"It's a global world; students are living shoulder-to-shoulder for six weeks in a cross-cultural environment," says Dr. Greg Leman, director of University Entrepreneurial Initiatives, who modeled the course to mimic what he experienced working in industry as a chemical and materials executive. "It's not a lot of new theory but rather application and experiential learning."

While students do get to cruise the Yangtze River and see the Three Gorges Dam, i5 is not your typical study-abroad program. "Students are ecstatic about the experience, but this is not a tour--this is real life," says Leman. "Asia is not an easy place. This is not a vacation."

In the coming years, he hopes to expand the program to a network of sites around the world.
Also overseas, other Baylor business students are making a difference in poverty-stricken places like Uganda, Mexico and Haiti. During the two-semester course, 30 senior business management students work with scientists to develop business plans for new technology to help lift people out of poverty. 

The most recent course has taken students from the Business Excellence Scholarship Team (BEST) to the Dominican Republic, where they've been working on the Mata de Palma Project with a local scientist, Omar Bros, who is developing a semi-portable sugar mill that converts sugar cane to ethanol. Students are developing a business plan to help Bros put a percentage of the project's profits to use for a desperately needed community center. The students also performed a study to support the sustainability of the resort area of Cabarete on the island. The university received a three-year grant from the U.S. State Department to offset the cost of the students' travel expenses.

"The project provides us with a laboratory for pedagogical approaches," says Dr. Kendall Artz, chair of the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship and director of the Baylor Entrepreneurship Program. "While the professors link with the scientists and provide guidance, this is a student-run consulting project that provides experiential learning."

This summer, Dr. Marlene Reed, BBA '59, a visiting professor of Management and Entrepreneurship, will escort students to the Dominican Republic to work further on the Mata de Palma project. 
"This is real-life experience helping entrepreneurs with projects, and students come away knowing they've added value to entrepreneurs in other parts of the world," says Reed.

SaraBeth Swagerty, BBA '09, participated in the Mata de Palma Project and is taking part in a related project working with underprivileged children in Cabarete this summer after graduation.

"I was really touched by the project. This is something I've seen and experienced firsthand and that I'm passionate about," says Swagerty. "It's important to see helping people less fortunate as extending the Baylor mission." 

Here at home, undergraduate accounting students put their education to work by helping low- and moderate-income earners in Waco through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, partnering with local charter high school A.J. Moore Academy. Through the program, which counts as a project grade, students train and become certified by the IRS to provide no-cost tax preparation. 
"Job recruiters are impressed by this valuable voluntary service," says Dr. Brett Wilkinson, associate professor of accountancy. "Students feel like they're making a real contribution by helping people. They also see their education in an applied context."

MBA students are making an impact in the Houston-based nonprofit Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP). Through the five-month volunteer program (read: no course credit), students advise prison inmate entrepreneurs in developing small-business plans to help them become responsible citizens upon re-entering society. In the past year alone, Baylor students have volunteered more than 1,000 hours, advising inmates in person at the Cleveland Correctional Facility in Cleveland, Texas, and/or via e-mail.
"What stirs students is the 'giving back' piece," says Dr. Gary Carini, associate professor of management and the associate dean for graduate programs, pointing to PEP's prison recidivism rate of 5 percent, compared with a national average rate of 50 to 70 percent. "This [community service] ties in with the mission of the University."

Engaging students in real-world experiences is fundamental to the business school's mission of leadership development. And perhaps the overriding reward of this type of experiential learning is helping students identify their passions so that they are prepared to pursue their life's work, says Carini.
"I was driving in my car last week listening to a radio station that was saying, 'Thank God it's Friday,'" he says. "But wouldn't it be nice every week if you could say, 'Thank God it's Monday'?"

Opportunities for experiential learning in Baylor's Hankamer School of Business empower students to make an impact in the real world--and give them an edge entering the workforce.