Experiential Learning

Honors Research Project

University of Akron, Honor's Business Students EXPERIENCE BUSINESS with Sugardale

For the students in Dr. Deborah Owens, Honors Project in Business Course, “Experience Business”, is more than a tagline. It is how students at the University of Akron learn business. This year honors students in the college are working on a yearlong project for the Sugardale brand of Massillon, Ohio based Fresh Mark. As a national supplier of bacon, hotdogs, ham and pepperoni, the students have been challenged to research and develop strategies for future growth for the Sugardale product lines.

Junior Anna Pond notes, “I have enjoyed the opportunity to work with Fresh Mark's Sugardale brand as it has further developed my relationship with my peers, enhanced my knowledge about real-world business problems, and has pushed me to critically think.”

According to Robert Hite, Fresh Mark's Vice President of Marketing and Retail Sales, “we are excited to be working with the University of Akron, College of Business. We have had many excellent interns from Akron and look forward to the innovative ideas they will be sharing with me and my team.”

Social Media Marketing Class

Students in the senior-level Social Media Marketing course focus on social media in the context of business issues that concern marketers, with an emphasis on understanding social media marketing strategies and current trends. Dr. Alexa Fox, Associate Professor of Marketing, emphasizes the importance of experiential learning by working with real local business on a course project. Students work in teams to practice social listening, monitoring the social media presence of a different brand each semester, and tracking relevant hashtags and keywords related to that business and its industry.

In Spring 2024, the Social Media Marketing course partnered with Swensons Drive-Ins, a drive-in restaurant chain founded in Akron. The students were challenged with the objective of reaching new audiences through social media to help Swensons engage with its local communities and leverage the beloved Akron brand as it seeks to expand to new markets.

“Curricula rooted in real-world, professional experiences is invaluable when preparing students to enter the workforce. But the benefits are equally valuable to businesses like ours that get to tap into incredible creativity of these burgeoning professionals,” says Branden Blackmur, VP of Marketing for Swensons Drive-Ins. “Working with the marketing students at the University of Akron was an absolute pleasure. The unique and divergent ways the students assessed the project, developed strategy, and then presented recommendations was exceptional.”

“My experience working with Swenson’s was invaluable and unforgettable,” says Ben Coughenour, Marketing/Sales graduating Senior. “Getting to work and making meaningful recommendations directly with a staple within the community was a full-circle moment and gave me great pride for the city of Akron. Being able to connect and learn with a VP of Marketing provided us with rich technical expertise that provided insight into the industry and most importantly gave us the proper support and guidance to truly – experience business.”

Marketing Capstone Project

In the Spring 2024 semester, students in Dr. Federico de Gregorio’s undergraduate Marketing Capstone Project class experienced developing a comprehensive marketing plan for the launch of the SideKicks frozen ice product into consumer-focused retail on behalf of Country Pure Foods. Country Pure Foods is one of the nation’s largest suppliers of juices, plant-based beverages, and frozen novelties, based right here in Akron, Ohio.

Working competitively in groups, students used primary and secondary research, as well as accumulated knowledge from all their prior marketing courses to develop recommendations addressing the following key issues:

• What are the different factors that parents vs. children consider when deciding whether to try or purchase a new frozen ice product?
• What brand name should Country Pure Foods use when launching the product into retail so that it attracts both parents and their kids?
• Development of a comprehensive product launch marketing plan that addresses messaging, media strategies, in-store communications, sales promotions, public relations, and metrics for success.

“The Marketing Capstone project served as a great culmination of our Marketing degree by merging the teachings from Social Media Marketing, Integrated Marketing Communications, Brand Management, Digital Marketing, and other classes. Our team was able to create real-world recommendations for social media posts, in-person events, and even influencers that Country Pure Foods could implement in their marketing strategy. This opportunity truly allowed me to ‘experience business’ first-hand and am I confident this will be beneficial to my future career,” said Halle Miller, Marketing and Sales Management graduate. “It was also great to present our recommendations directly to the client and hear their feedback. It felt like we were a real-life marketing agency vying for the brand's business. My team was excited to take home first place in the contest and we are excited to see what aspects of our recommendations the client utilizes as they bring the product directly to consumers in the near future.”

According to Tony Muscato, CEO of Country Pure Foods, “We partnered with Professor Federico DeGregorio and his outstanding crop of senior Marketing Capstone Project students to assist Country Pure Foods launch our SideKicks frozen novelty line into the Grocery Retail channel. Their highly insightful analyses, out of the box thinking, marketing acumen, and unbridled enthusiasm added incredible value to this vital company project. Any one of these remarkable UA students will hit the ground running well prepared to outshine in their professional Marketing career.”

HR Management Consulting Project

Capstone Course 6500:471

The Management Capstone Project is a team-based experiential learning project required of all Human Resource (HR) Management majors. The purpose of the course is to develop skills in team dynamics, ambiguous field based problem solving, and high-level communication. The course provides an opportunity for students to be exposed to complicated, advanced management issues in HR. Students will research and apply modern human resource management principles, practices, and theories to the problem. The class is a culminating senior experience meant to enrich student learning in a collaborative, practical environment. The focus of the course is on strategic decision making using the students expertise in the field of HR while applying the course concepts to a real-world problem that an organization currently faces. This is a win-win scenario for our students and for the client organizations. The client benefits by obtaining valuable insights on a practical project from some of our brightest and most enthusiastic HR students. The students also benefit immensely from working with an organization on a real-world project. Usually, the students visit the client site several times during the semester to understand the project, collect data and to present their findings at the end of the semester.

This incredible experiential learning course provides the students with invaluable experience just before they finish their degree and begin their careers in Human Resource Management. Clients come to us with an HR business need that they would like the students to study and analyze. Understanding the needs of the business and how research provides evidence-based support for the students ideas, creates a true connection between research and practice. Further, an integral part of our program focuses on analytics so students learn to conduct surveys, collect data and use the information to drive their recommendations to the client. Many times, the students get hands-on experience adopting best practices for HR materials such as employee handbooks, job descriptions, compensation and benefits, training design, and other HR deliverables.

Examples of previous projects:

• Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company needed a standardized exit interview process for its North America business that was efficient, easy to access, and provided valuable insight into exit reasons (to target improvement in retention metrics).
• Babcock and Wilcox was preparing to implement a new compensation structure worldwide. Students were asked to recommend successful change management techniques and communication strategies that would help implement the new compensation structure worldwide by effectively and efficiently communicating with the employees.
• The City of Akron wanted help to reorganize their Retirement Benefit plans to better prepare the city employees for retirement. The students also compared City of Akron's retirement benefits with other similar cities and recommended best practices for implementation.
• Walmart wanted to increase internal promotions based on their selection process for Assistant Store Manager. The students developed surveys to gather data from the perceptions of different groups involved in the process. They analyzed the survey data as well as other hiring data that Walmart provided for this position to identify opportunities in the process and to provide recommendations to the Walmart HR team based on the findings. The project looked at the entire staffing process for the position, including: Recruiting, Selection, On-boarding and Retention/Turnover.
• Akron Children's Hospital (ACH) needed to address HR business needs related to mentoring, onboarding, succession planning, and talent management. Students conducted research, analyzed data, and applied their expertise gained from the HR program to present their recommendations to the ACH Leadership team.

Sport Business & Sport Analytics Consulting Project

Sport Business and Analytics students teamed up with UA’s Department of Athletics to tackle challenges and explore opportunities for boosting fan engagement and optimizing facility usage. The collaboration concluded with formal presentations to athletic administrators, showcasing innovative growth ideas.

Supply Chain Consulting Project

Throughout the semester, our supply chain students collaborated with Swenson’s Drive-In on a consulting project aimed at optimizing the sourcing and distribution of key ingredients. By applying concepts from their supply chain courses, the students developed recommendations to enhance efficiency and operations.