Two Academic Community Engagement (ACE) courses from Sam Houston State University’s College of Business Administration (COBA) have been featured in the most recent volume of the college’s Journal of Business Strategies. These two case studies highlight the mutually beneficial nature of ACE courses between students, faculty and community partners.
The Case Studies in Community-Engaged Business Education section was orchestrated by COBA professor and ACE coordinator Danica Schieber, who serves as section editor.
The study highlighted a pair of examples offered to business students, led by professors Ali Mchiri and Huda Masood.
Masood’s human resource management students partnered with Huntsville-based Tomorrow’s Promise Montessori Schools (TPMS), a longstanding non-profit organization with three locations in the area. The students focused primarily on providing solutions to their high turnover rates.
In a similar active learning exercise, Mchiri’s small business management course worked with the local Nelson Amaya Collision Center in Huntsville.
The students broke into four groups and were each encouraged to act as business consultants competing for the best proposal. While each group was provided with the same instructions, their approach to analyzing, gathering and interpreting evidence varied.
At the end of the semester, the groups submitted complete business plans to Mchiri and Amaya and formally presented their proposals in a professional setting.
