CBA Marketing Students Turn Classroom Learning into Community Impact

With support from the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Service Learning Academy, marketing faculty in the College of Business Administration regularly connect students with local businesses and nonprofit organizations. These partnerships give students opportunities to apply concepts from class while helping community organizations address marketing and business challenges. Students have worked on projects involving branding, website development, social media, sales, fundraising, market analysis and consulting. The projects vary by course and community partner, but they share a common goal: giving students experience working with real organizations and real business problems.

One recent example is The Builder Foundation’s new brand identity. During a summer Marketing Management course taught by Professor Yanhui Zhao, students worked with the foundation on a rebranding project and developed potential logo designs. A design created by student Pei Chieh Wu was selected and has since become the foundation’s official logo.

The Builder Foundation has now introduced the new identity through its social media channels (https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1C5ysoUsa5/).

The Builder Foundation project is one of many community partnerships incorporated into Zhao’s Marketing Management courses. Students have also worked with Assemble Omaha, Empower Autism Omaha, Omni Inventive Care, Davis Boxing Club, Stay Strong Physical Therapy and Wellness, and Lavender Lane Laundry. Depending on the needs of each organization, students have worked on marketing strategy, customer and market analysis, branding, social media, growth opportunities and other business issues.

Similar service-learning projects are incorporated into courses across the department.

Professor Max Yu uses service learning in both Digital Marketing Communications and Social Media Marketing. In Digital Marketing Communications, each semester, student teams develop websites for a community partner. The partner reviews the completed designs and selects one to use as its official website.

In Social Media Marketing, Yu has partnered with the Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum for six years. Students visit the museum to collect original photos and stories and interview staff members. They then use this material to develop social media content designed to increase awareness and strengthen the museum’s brand.

Professor Sona Klucarova also incorporates service learning into her Principles of Marketing course. She works with a different community partner each semester and develops projects around the organization’s specific needs.

In a recent partnership with C’est la Crêpe, a French crêpe food trailer serving Omaha and Council Bluffs, students developed a pricing flyer, social media content and recommendations for redesigning the company’s website. The owner later implemented some of the students’ ideas. This semester, Klucarova’s students are working with Child Saving Institute to develop an online monthly giving program designed to engage Gen Z donors.

Service learning has also been part of the department’s sales curriculum for many years. In one Professional Selling partnership with Together A Greater Good (TAGG), students in Professor Shannon Cummins’ class contacted local businesses and introduced them to TAGG’s platform. In one semester, students helped add six businesses to the platform and raised $700 for UNO’s campus food pantry. The project also led to a summer internship opportunity for one of the participating students.

Professor Anne Herman noted that students in consultative selling courses have worked with UNO and community partners for years. Her MBA capstone sections alone have completed more than 120 projects with nonprofits and startups. Other courses have connected students with nonprofit organizations on projects involving technical selling, affordable housing and other community needs.

Together, these projects show how service learning has become part of marketing education at CBA. Students do more than study marketing concepts in class. They work with clients, analyze problems, develop recommendations and see how organizations respond to their ideas.

The UNO Service Learning Academy plays an important role in supporting these partnerships and connecting faculty, students and community organizations. With this support, students gain practical experience while local businesses and nonprofits gain access to student ideas and resources. The result is a learning experience that connects classroom concepts with the work students may be asked to do in their future careers.