The Transformative Social Impact Journal Podcast

Title: Cultivating Cross-Course Collaboration: A Model for Student Consulting Projects

Authors/Presenters: By Jonathan H. Westover and Jacque P. Westover

Abstract: This discusses a unique cross-course collaborative model implemented at Utah Valley University between organizational development and change, advanced business statistics, and integrated studies courses. This fall semester, upper-division undergraduate students formed multi-disciplinary teams to complete a semester-long consulting project with the university's Women in Business Impact Lab. Through an iterative process of proposal development, data analysis, and solution implementation, students gained valuable consulting experience while working across course boundaries. The model integrated skills from each discipline by having teams develop proposals, analyze data provided by the Impact Lab, and develop recommendations. Regular cross-team meetings allowed students to leverage diverse expertise. This presentation will outline the course structure, team processes, challenges encountered, and lessons learned. Experiences to date suggests the model enhanced students' collaborative and applied skills. The cross-course approach can serve as a template for other institutions seeking to provide real-world experiences through multi-disciplinary teamwork.

doi.org/10.70175/socialimpactjournal.2025.1.1.1

From the article: "Why should organizations develop corporate social impact initiatives? First, we need to openly acknowledge that companies have a social contract with their surrounding communities. As companies directly benefit from the shared community infrastructure, organizations have a responsibility to give back to and directly benefit their communities, and not just through providing jobs. Simply put, a social, impact-driven employee engagement strategy is the next blue ocean worker engagement area for organizations, which will simultaneously increase the firm’s socially-minded brand and reputation, while also leading to a wide range of positive organizational benefits and outcomes. And, there is the added benefit that such initiatives, irrespective of the very real firm benefits, can positively impact communities and societies across the globe!"