Over the last three years, marketing students at Tiffin University have put their skills to practical use helping local businesses market themselves. Now entering its fourth year, the program has been a fruitful experience for students and businesses alike, providing companies with free marketing consulting and giving students an opportunity to explore the community and apply their learning.

The Marketing Communications course, led by School of Business Assistant Dean, Associate Professor of Marketing and School of Business Internship Director Dr. Kellie McGilvray, works with community businesses to give students real-world project experience. The students are typically Sophomores or Juniors, and the majority of students in this course are marketing majors.

The class begins with a meeting day for businesses and students to get to know each other, and assess the needs of the businesses. The students construct a consulting plan based on the material and information shared. For example, some companies have needed a social media plan, advertising campaign, marketing plan, business plan, re-branding plan, or just help with current plans.  From there the students, under Dr. McGilvray's guidance, work on their plans for 15 weeks, working closely with the companies and visiting the company twice during the semester.  The students are taught strategies and theories in class that they apply within their group.  At the end of the semester the students present their company with a professional portfolio along with a formal presentation.

At this time, some students have been offered internships or full-time employment to implement the material that was presented. Other owners take the material and use it as a guide for future endeavors.

Dr. McGilvary said the program has been beneficial to her students and their partner companies:

"All-in-all this has been a great way to marry the community with the university and get the students involved and vested into the community.  The students love the project and the community has been so receptive of this project that we have to actually turn companies away. The students are able to get real-world experience that they can put on their resumes and showcase their talents with real business owners. I cannot say enough about how humbling the community support is and how wonderful the experience has been so far."

The course will continue with a new set of businesses and students for the spring semester.

Some of the companies the class has worked with include: