Down to business
Junior Ran Tau found that preparing and pitching a business plan to executives was
easier than coaching younger students for it. She says, "I'm a doer, but as a coach
I had to incentivize the students to hatch their own plan and not do it for them.
It's challenging."
For freshman Tucker Moody, the gateway management and business course known as MB
107 has been a game-changer. The class examines a business problem faced by a real
company and then breaks into teams to come up with solutions. Upperclass students
coach the teams as they prepare formal pitches, which they deliver in person to real-life
executives (often alumni and parents). Moody says, "It's so realistic. It makes you
think about how what you do in class connects with what you're going to do in life.
This is one course that really changes how you think about school."
Having taken and coached MB 107 and found them "challenging but rewarding" in different
ways, junior Themba Shongwe notes that "college and the workplace require teamwork
among people with different backgrounds and skills, and in MB 107 you learn to work
together for a common cause."
More comments from the trenches:
