Designing Student Success Through Community Engagement

There’s a growing demand for business schools to equip students with skills to address societal issues, such as those listed in the United Nations’ 17 goals to help develop a sustainable and equitable world. Several of these goals are being pursued at Lawrence Technological University in the College of Business and Information Technology (CoBIT) in support of the college’s vision to drive innovation and positive change in business.

CoBIT envisions an educational journey that not only empowers learners to be innovative but also creates transformative change in businesses. Through teaching, research, and stakeholder engagement, the college is engaging faculty, learners, and graduates to focus on economic growth, health and well-being, infrastructure, sustainable cities and communities, and building partnerships and capacity building.

Economic growth within the Metro Detroit region will be supported through the creation of LTU’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center. This is an exciting initiative amid planning with the goal of connecting learners, faculty, entrepreneurs, and industry partners. To ensure its success, the college engaged executive in residence Dan Radomski, CEO of Centrepolis, and Ross Sanders, Director of Industry Partnerships and Entrepreneurship. Centrepolis is one of the few accelerators nationwide focused on physical products rather than software or services, helping both entrepreneurs and established businesses create innovative new manufactured products and manufacturing techniques. CoBIT will leverage the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center to connect students with new businesses, collaborate with local communities, and add value to the success of businesses. Faculty will teach accounting, entrepreneurship, finance, management, and marketing, and conduct research on entrepreneurial success. The Center will help high school students explore their entrepreneurial ideas and bring their concepts to reality, by partnering with the city of Southfield and youth clubs to mentor students about entrepreneurship. CoBIT students and faculty will also focus on health and well-being, infrastructure, and sustainable cities and communities through teaching and research on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data analytics and organization development.

Also participating in this new initiative is the SOAR Center for Strategic Change. based on the research of CoBIT Professor Jacqueline Stavros into her system of creating positive change in organizations by studying Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results. SOAR was created by Professor Jacqueline Stavros based on her doctoral dissertation: “Capacity Building: An Appreciative Approach and a Relational Process of Building Your Organization’s Future.” As Dr. Matthew Cole, Interim Dean of the college, says, “Community is important to CoBIT because of engagement; that is how we demonstrate our impact. That is our vision and how we show positive change.” The SOAR Center for Strategic Change will focus on capacity building through teaching and research on SOAR and generative conversations focused on strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results. SOAR was created by Professor Jacqueline Stavros based on her dissertation: “Capacity Building: An Appreciative Approach and a Relational Process of Building Your Organization’s Future.”

Dr. Stavros emphasizes in her research that “your organization’s driving force is your people.” Based on 25 years of research and practice, SOAR is best known as a “profoundly positive approach to strategic thinking, planning, and leading that allows any person at any level in any organization to create strategy and strategic plans through shared conversations, collaboration, and commitment to action.” Stavros says, “SOAR guides individuals and teams to have strategic conversations that build connections and inspires innovations and engagement to create environments that work for all.” Through SOAR-based conversations, faculty, students, and members in organizations will develop a better understanding of how conversation can strengthen relationships, build trust, fuel productivity, create shared understanding, and inspire possibilities. “These are conversations worth having that create connections. You have capacity because now people are talking to each other and not at each other,” says Interim Dean Cole. Learn to SOAR at www.soar-strategy.com

Business impacts students and students can impact the businesses they choose to work with. Our CoBIT students are learning that businesses can be a force for good in communities and the planet. Through a strategic focus on specific UN sustainable development goals, CoBIT is driving innovation and positive change in businesses while improving society. The college joins the world-wide initiative to improve humankind and make the world a better place for the present and future.

by Nurzahan Rahman and Matthew Cole