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A team of NIU business students will have their work on a semester-long project with McDonald's showcased during the August 21st Academic Convocation. NIU's Academic Convocation is a formal ceremony to welcome and celebrate more than 3,000 incoming Freshman and transfer students to Northern Illinois University. Only two of the university's most innovative academic programs are highlighted during the ceremony. During this year's ceremony, the Fall 2008 student team that participated in the college's Experiential Learning Center (ELC) will describe their work with McDonald's on the company's Environmental Footprint project; McDonald's representatives will also be in attendance. The students' efforts on this project resulted in solutions to help McDonald's reduce its environmental footprint. Specifically, the team of upper-level business and engineering students from a variety of majors focused their research on reducing landfill waste, reducing energy consumption and improving in-store green initiatives. The actionable ideas were classified in five categories: Revitalize, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Renew. The team generated more than 100 ideas to research and evaluate, and at the end of the Fall 2008 semester, they presented their findings and recommendations to more than 40 McDonald's executives. This collaborative endeavor between students, business professionals, and business faculty provided an immersive and real-stakes experience for students to learn how to identify and solve an important and complex business issue faced by a global Fortune 500 company. For more information on this project and the college's ELC, visit the ELC webpages where you will learn how you can gain invaluable business experience by working with business professionals, faculty and your fellow students while you're in college. It's a fantastic experience and great to include on a resume. Visit the college's ELC webpages, and apply today!
Twelve NIU students had a job with McDonald's last fall – not cooking or taking orders, but acting as consultants to the world's largest restaurant company. Read more . . .
Women in the DeKalb area will be better informed of the support available when experiencing an unplanned pregnancy thanks to a grant given by the McKesson Foundation. The grant provides funding to the NIU College of Business Experiential Learning Center (ELC) for market research and assistance to the We Care Pregnancy Clinic. Read more . . .
Group Hope, organized a year ago by six students in the business college, is a support group that has students helping each other deal with depression. Read more . . .
A team of 6 business students set out to increase the awareness of mental heath. They had an idea about creating a Group Hope on campus and they were “smart enough to seize upon it and turn it into a reality. Read more . . .
Groups of students with numerous specialties are teamed together to be a professional business consultant for a client. These students complete their work in four months rather then the normal time, which is about a year. Read more . . .
When students are dealing with professionals, it is difficult to say what your true opinion is. One ELC team told their client with confidence that their whole product was all wrong. The student team recommended a new color, new bottle design, new name and new marketing channels based on their research. Another ELC team helped create a website for Mental Health Association of the Rock River Valley. Read more . . .
An ELC team recommended that the EIGERlab take a strategic approach to entering the marketing for precision small parts. The team recommended the EIGERlab manufacture machine tools that produce the small parts rather than small parts themselves. Read more . . .
A group of Forest Park businesses tasked an ELC team with re-branding their community. The team expressed gave many options and alternatives to differentiate the community from others and increase awareness. Read more . . .
The ELC was awarded $16,000 by the NIU Foundation to assist not-for-profit organizations. Read more . . .
Forest Park is particularly interested in marketing and they believe that the students in the NIU College of Business ELC program will be able to help. They are most interested in everyone's ideas for a project focus. Read more . . .
The ELC earned the Educational Partner of the Year Award from the Family Service Shelter. The ELC team created a database which allows logging calls and cases to be much easier and less time consuming. Read more . . .
Forest Park is looking for marketing help and they turned to the NIU College of Business ELC. They are looking to re-brand themselves and get their image out. ELC students started just that. Read more . . .
NIU College of Business ELC students used their technology skills to help streamline the operation of the Family Shelter Service. Another group of ELC students gains real life experience by helping rebuild Midtown. Read more . . .