The Apprentice Comes to NIU’s Classroom!

 

By Denise Schoenbachler, Elisa Fredericks & Carol DeMoranville

Northern Illinois University’s College of Business has developed a Marketing Apprentice Class, based on the popular television show “Apprentice.” The class started with four teams of four students who applied for acceptance in the one credit hour course. Each week for 5 weeks, the teams compete on marketing related tasks. The losing team has a team member “fired” each week by NIU’s own version of Donald Trump—played by four NIU College of Business alumni who have helped develop the course. The final team of four students wins a $1000 scholarship for each team member. Tasks have included creating a marketing research questionnaire, selling tickets to NIU’s football game, creating an advertisement to communicate about the student health insurance program, and developing a marketing plan for a service business. The NIU class generated media attention after the student teams were assigned the task of raising money for the USO to send care packages to soldiers overseas. The 12 students raised over $12,000 for the organization in a two week period. 

The class has also been a huge success with regard to PR for the university, college, department, and students. The fund raising task, in particular, was a real attention getter. In two weeks, the students raised over $12,000 for the Operation USO Care Package. This resulted in the program being featured in local and Chicago newspapers, radio, and TV stations. The NIU Marketing Apprentice Class was even mentioned by Donald Trump himself on a weekly radio promotion! In the radio program, Trump says, “I have to hand it to Northern Illinois University’s College of Business. They’re just a little ahead of the pack.  If I were 20 years old again, I’d be in that class.” While the inaugural class required a significant amount of planning, time, and effort, it was well worth it. It was an incredible learning experience and fun at the same time!  If you would like more information about the class, check out the website (www.cob.niu.edu/apprentice) or contact any of the faculty advisors: Carol DeMoranville (demoranville@niu.edu), Elisa Fredericks (elisa@niu.edu), or Denise Schoenbachler (denises@niu.edu).

Dr. Denise Schoenbachler, Chair
Department of Marketing
College of Business
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, IL 60115

Dr. Elisa Fredericks
Department of Marketing
College of Business
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, IL  60115