UNB Faculty of Management Helps Students Tackle the Most Stubborn Real-Life Business Problems
The University of New Brunswick’s Faculty of Management paves a path to a prosperous career for its students – and it does so by strong community integration.
The Bachelor of Business Administration program, which balances in-class knowledge and theory with real-life experience, is UNB’s business arm into the real world, training graduates who are regular Swiss Army Knives of business know-how in many settings.
Part of this business world integration comes through this year’s mandatory Community Leadership course, through which students are literally helping handle New Brunswick’s housing crisis.
Students in the course undertake a variety of work in their experiential learning programs – this includes dealing with New Brunswick’s housing crisis.
This year, students are using their business acumen to help the New Brunswick Non-Profit Housing Association and its 180 members improve operational efficiencies.
Cameron Horwood is one of the students enrolled in the Faculty of Management, working with the New Brunswick Non-Profit Housing Association (NBNPHA).
He and six other students are working to help the NBNPHA keep track of the 6,500 not-for-profit and co-op housing units across New Brunswick that it and its members are responsible for.
To do this, Horwood and the others are collecting, analyzing and visualizing financial and rental information from non-profit housing, in a bid to help the association understand housing trends across New Brunswick communities, so they can make more informed and efficient decisions.
“We hope that the work we’re doing will lay a good foundation for this project going forward and will hopefully improve the lives of New Brunswickers in need,” says Horwood.
For Horwood, the experience has been rewarding, enjoyable and “a nice change of pace to apply the skills and theory that we’ve learned throughout the course to a tangible project outside the classroom.”
“Sometimes, the information learned in courses is only applied to problems with perfect conditions and no external factors. Testing my knowledge in a more dynamic environment has definitely improved my learning and how I understand certain concepts,” says Horwood.
The opportunity to collaborate and work with other students is the highlight of experiential learning for Horwood.
“Communication with the NBNPHA has been fantastic and we look forward to our weekly meetings when we’re free to flex our creative muscles and come up with interesting ideas,” says Horwood.
Peter Corbyn, with the New Brunswick Non-Profit Housing Association (NBNPHA), says the Faculty of Management students’ efforts were invaluable to help coordinate information from the NBNPHA’s many member organizations.
Corbyn says the students’ help is valuable because they came with the necessary appreciation of the business side of running not-for-profit and co-op housing.
“Even though it’s a not-for-profit, it’s the business sector and they need to have an understanding of financial statements,” says Corbyn.
Students are building a database of financial information from members, taking into account revenue, energy costs, taxes and property values – tens of thousands of valuable data points.
This requires collaboration with spreadsheets, with thousands of data points, as well as efficiently presenting them for use by the association.
“There’s a marketing element there which involves converting all this data into a narrative,” says Corbyn.
“And it’s teamwork. Assigning specific tasks, choosing who is the lead on what, and who will be working on which regions. There are various elements of a business degree from a project perspective that are of value to the students.”
Corbyn says the spreadsheets will provide benchmark data, which will help identify consolidation opportunities and inform purchasing decisions – helping to navigate the many challenges of the diverse body and its wide array of property.
Heidi Crummell, a PhD candidate at UNB, is teaching the course this year. She sees the benefits this course has for business students up close. “By sharing their knowledge with local organizations, these students are developing practical skills and gaining firsthand experience of how their work can create a positive impact on the community.”
This year, the course is getting support from Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning Canada (CEWIL) – the lead organization for work-integrated learning in the nation.
CEWIL provided UNB a grant, through UNB’s Office of Experiential Learning, to help students get access to industry mentorship, providing students a stipend to help with community projects.
“The Faculty of Management’s Community Leadership course is a fantastic example of experiential learning that supports student learning inside and outside the classroom,” said Sarah King, Office of Experiential Learning Director.
“Curricular experiential learning opportunities like these are the focus of CEWIL, Canada’s iHub program, which provides funding to students participating in these course-based opportunities. This year, UNB has more funding from CEWIL iHub than any other university in Canada. We’re grateful that the work of faculties and students are being supported by national programs like the CEWIL iHub. Projects like the Community Leadership Course help solidify UNB’s reputation as a national leader in experiential learning.”
This story is sponsored by UNB’s Faculty of Management