PIctured above – Tennessee Tech business student Cole Campbell, right, delivers his team’s final presentation on fundraising for the Michelle Huddleston Memorial Food Pantry as teammate Carson Hall, left, looks on.
Project also provides a way to apply concepts the students have learned in the classroom over the semester
Students in Assistant Professor Jeremy Schoen’s organizational leadership class at Tennessee Tech University fused experiential learning and philanthropy into an impactful semester-long project.
The course, housed within Tech’s College of Business, tasked teams of students with selecting a charitable cause and planning a fundraising event to support it. The students then delivered a final report on the success of their efforts at the end of the semester in front of their peers.
“I wanted to make a project that was more than just something we did in a classroom,” said Schoen. “This really tends to capture their attention because it’s theirs. I’ve had 40 teams over the last three semesters that have raised over $20,000 for different charities. So, they do an amazing job.”
According to Schoen, the project also provides a way to apply concepts the students have learned in the classroom over the semester, from conflict management and teamwork to delegation, persuasion, influence and communication.
“Students must practice the topics we learn about to make their project effective, and it helps them to see that leadership is based in action and not just a person,” he explained.
The mission is personal to Schoen, whose difficult childhood – including time spent living in a family shelter – instilled a social conscience he hopes to pass on to students.
Over the past semester, 10 teams of students raised money and awareness for causes ranging from Tech’s Michelle Huddleston Memorial Food Pantry, an on-campus resource providing nutritional support for food-insecure students, to Faeryland’s Farm Menagerie, an animal sanctuary and rescue farm in nearby Baxter, Tennessee, to House of Hope, a short-term care facility for at-risk children in the Upper Cumberland and others.
Carson Hall was part of the student team that raised money for the university’s Food Pantry.
“We really wanted to do this because we felt like this is on our campus, this is very much home turf for us,” said Hall.
The team hosted a canned food drive on Tech’s Centennial Plaza in mid-March that hauled in 1,125 cans of food and cash donations totaling $375.
Megan Casey helped spearhead the student team that raised money for the Cookeville Rescue Mission, a faith-based nonprofit serving those experiencing homelessness in the community.
“Because we don’t struggle with this, there’s almost like a moral code to help those that do,” said Casey.
While the group had originally planned a dodgeball tournament fundraiser, logistical challenges forced a last-minute pivot. The group decided on an informational booth where they could disseminate flyers and engage passersby with a game of Jenga. The revised plan yielded $100 in donations.
“We really had to kick it into high gear to get everything done and make sure it was done in the right way,” added Casey.
Yet another group raised $275 for the Movember Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to men’s mental health, suicide prevention and combating cancers affecting men.
The team planned a pay-what-you-want lunch on campus in April and was able to keep their overhead costs low thanks to donated meals from Moogie’s BBQ.
“We’re just trying to normalize it. Let’s get OK with the fact that sometimes we’re not OK, and we can talk about it,” said Joshua Roysden, a student on the team. “Our biggest focus was camaraderie and fellowship, and to bring awareness to this. We hope we touched some people.”
While Schoen is proud of the teams’ keen business skills and dollars raised, he also hopes to empower students with a sense of responsibility to make a difference for issues they care about most.
“I think a lot of us struggle with that idea of ‘how do I give back?’” said Schoen. “But if it’s something that you care about, you’re the one who’s going to have to stand up and do it.”
Learn more about Tech’s College of Business at www.tntech.edu/business.
Photo courtesy of Tech.
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