By Ashley Wall, Staff Writer [Published in The MSU Reporter 10/6/09]
Custom T-shirts are a popular way to celebrate homecoming and show school spirit. This year, one business class found a way to pass the school sprit onto students while managing to give back to the community.
Seven Principles of Management students created homecoming T-shirts as a part of a service-learning project. The group, Mavericks United, paired up with Greater Mankato United Way to raise money for the community.
The group created a plan and sold 105 shirts over a period of two weeks. Each shirt was $12, and nearly all the profits will go to the United Way.
"I feel like raising money for the United Way was the successful part, the shirts were just a way to do it," said group member Kaitlin Brubaker.
Kelly Priem, a student at MSU, bought the shirt to support Mankato during homecoming.
"Homecoming is a big deal around here," she said. Priem and other students heard about the T-shirts through Facebook.
A total of 16 groups of students from the three Principles of Management classes will contribute ideas on how to support the Greater Mankato United Way this semester.
The mastermind behind the service-learning project is management associate professor Dr. Brenda Flannery. This is a brand new project Flannery is testing out on her students this semester, but she hopes it will lead to a long-lasting relationship with Greater Mankato United Way.
"I'm always trying to find ways to make the course more experimental, more engaging and more relevant," Flannery said. "It's so exciting to watch the students really grow and they always surpass my expectations. I just found it to be a really fun way to teach."
The service-learning project is worth about 43 percent of the students' grade and revolves highly around teamwork, which Flannery admits frightens some over-achievers. Each group was required to work with Greater Mankato United Way in order for Flannery to keep track of 105 students.
To read the entire article, go to The MSU Reporter.
