By Christina Doyle | Observer Contributor
Photo by Matthew Cohen
Editor’s Note: Business Capstone Classes are offered every spring. If interested, the following offers a preview of what you could be involved with when the class is offered again.
Last semester Dr. Michael Greenwood’s Strategic Management class conducted their in-depth analysis on higher education for MWCC compared to other schools. The Mount has been looking at ways to better the school for the students and as President Daniel Asquino stated before the presentation, “We will look at this presentation as a reflection for our future plans.”
Kara Bradberry, the Project Manager, introduced their topic and 12 students presented. For the presentation, the students observed data from several community, private, and state universities and N.H. schools. Most of this information had been on record and given to the students by the Mount.
Sager Patel, the student who covered the positioning map, found that compared to other community schools, the Mount is high in accessibility but low on the affordability scale. Patel also found that the Mount has a high online program but a low degree and certificate program. One all around positive feedback presented was that compared to other community schools, the Mount has an overall higher student success rate and a high student to faculty ratio.
Bradberry concluded the presentation with a few areas the Mount could improve on. One area included a Veterinarian Medicine Program, considering the rapid rates of demand for students in the animal science field. Another improvement Bradberry pointed out was to create a bigger library at the Leominster campus for students who are not able to make it to Gardner. Another action plan recommended was to extend the office hours of some of the offices because evening students rarely have time to have access these offices on all three campuses.
Robin Duncan, VP of Marketing & Communications, said she was pleased with the overall presentation and impressed with the analysis that went into the project. Duncan stated, “I don’t know many schools that would make themselves as vulnerable to their students.” Duncan explained that the information the school allowed the students to access for this project was brave.
Not all the information that Duncan handed over to the students to work with made MWCC seem like the best school choice. Duncan gave the students access to information that would provide not necessarily positive, but accurate feedback.
Dr. Greenwood asked Richard Greene, a team leader for the project, to visit Duncan’s office to see what he could come up with for a proposal on Higher Education for the Mount. “I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to find when I sat down with Robin,” said Greene. “Come to find out, it seemed like an interesting topic to cover.” He brought back the proposal to his group, where the countless days of work began.
The class worked 6 consecutive weeks on gathering information and perfecting the information within the 300 slides they compiled. Greene made it very clear the time-consuming process that went into the presentation, “You saw every slide of data! Each week, we had 25-30 pages of information that went into making those slides.”
Kara Bradberry and Richard Greene both agreed that it was a great experience. Greene stated, “The overall experience was amazing.” While Kara Bradberry said, “If any student has the chance to take this course, I definitely recommend it.”
Comments are closed.