For the first time last spring, Rutgers Business School offered an experiential course within the entrepreneurship curriculum. The course pairs teams of business students with small companies to help these businesses solve real life problems.
One student, Kevin Chan, worked with a cabinet designing-distributing company to decide whether or not the owner could successfully grow his business into the New England market as a way to expand the business and increase sales. Instead of traditional tests, Chan, along with the students in his group, met with managers and other business people, ultimately producing two key documents that were modeled off those of professional consultants. Throughout the semester, the students met face-to-face with the company’s vice president, toured the company’s main distribution center, and completed extensive research.
In an article released by the school, Chan explained the impact of this course when he remembers meeting with his team for dinner one night. “We weren’t talking about the typical things,” he said. “Our conversation was more related to the class and how it forced us to unravel what the (cabinet) business was all about.”
In recent years, Rutgers Business School has increased their emphasis on these sort of experiential learning courses with the hopes to expand their offerings in the future.
