Students get real life experience

Moving past the traditional education styles into “an existential learning experience,” the field studies program in the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business is partnering with major companies to solve their toughest problems, said Mark Thomas, field studies adviser.

Thomas instituted the field studies program during the fall semester with the knowledge and experience he gained from working with the field studies program at Brigham Young University. The field studies program is different from the paper and pencil learning experience most students experience at a university, he said, and requires students to apply what they know and quickly learn what they don’t know to help clients solve problems.

“Most students that I come across spend anywhere from 12 to 16 years learning to be excellent sponges,” Thomas said. “They soak up information and they squeeze it out on a piece of paper called the test, or the paper, or the research project. That’s fine. But in the field studies program, that doesn’t do. What we’re intending to do is become consultants, and simply parroting what somebody has told you to memorize doesn’t count for education in this class. This requires the truth well spoken. It requires logic, it requires articulate speech, reading human psychology, and above all it requires a passion for excellence.”

Thomas said the field studies program creates partnerships with major firms, both locally and internationally, to create solutions for whatever problems they may have.

He said he approaches potential clients with some simple questions: “What keeps you awake at night? What is the thing that is ready to destroy your career? Let us become your ally and solve that for you.”

Once the company’s problem has been identified, Thomas said the students sit down and outline what the solution needs to be and work backwards, planning all the intermediate steps, and then go out and get to work.

“We’re solving peoples’ problems,” Thomas said. “So I tell the students when they walk in the door, ‘You forget about yourself, your resume. You only have one thing to do in this class, and that’s to make someone else happy. And if you make that person happy, you won’t have to worry about your resume and you won’t have to worry about your job.’ We as Americans haven’t figured that out yet, that getting a good job, impressing people about how wonderful we are, it’s figuring out what someone else’s problem is and solving it.”

While Thomas says he tells his students to forget about their resumes, he said this learning experience will do more for their future careers than a good resume or interviewing skills.

“You go out and do something for somebody and they know you intimately in a way that they could not find out in any other way,” Thomas said. “They’ll give you the edge over any interviewee that comes in, over any resume, because they’re going to know you in a way that they can’t find any other way. So this is a terrific way, even though the students are supposed to forget about this, for a company to figure out who they want to hire. It’s a great exposure and it’s a great way for the students to show off.”

Troy Oldham, who teaches the capstone public relations agency course – a program similar in format to the field studies program – said, “I think it’s fantastic to see other progressive institutions do field study work at the end of the academic curriculum. The experience gained by working with Microsoft and ABC TV and even some local startups has been the difference of getting great jobs rather than good jobs.”

While the experience may be invaluable, there is a considerable amount of work involved in a field studies project, Thomas said.

“This is a grand adventure because it involves deception, it involves suspicion, it involves mystery, it involves intrigue and above all, heroism, because you are making a difference in peoples’ lives,” Thomas said. “It’s hard work and it takes concentration, and you have no clue because you have no map, you have to make up the map as you go. That’s the first thing we do, we sit down and say, ‘OK, what’s the problem here?’ It’s not in the back of the book, it’s not in the sponge, it’s inside. It’s kind of a rebirth about what you think about business, that nothing but the best will do, and you’ll do it in this class.”

Thomas said former clients have been impressed with the quality of the work of the students, with one Black and Decker executive saying, “We were blown away. This was as good or better than the professionals do.”

Because of the high level of performance by the students, Thomas said he charges clients somewhere between $10,000 to $15,000 so they will take the project seriously. He said while that may be a high initial investment, the amount of work and the results returned would cost a company in the vicinity of $50,000 to $100,000 if they were to do the work themselves.

“If they were to hire these same students a year from now when they graduate, they could pay a small fortune,” Thomas said. “This is a great deal for the company. They get a chance to see firsthand people they may want to hire. This is a long-term relationship for the school.”

Building these relationships with major companies is a primary goal for the School of Business, Thomas said.

“We want them to say, ‘We cannot do without Utah State. The success of our organization is depending on our partnership with Utah State.’ So we are building partnerships right now, and we’re already getting return business,” he said.

This semester, Thomas said students are working on a variety of projects, from a marketing research project with Icon Health and Fitness, to a micro-finance program in Africa, to improving organizational design for the American Heritage group. He said one student has become so involved in the Africa project that she is planning on moving to Africa upon graduation to assist people in refugee camps.

“Does this make a difference? You bet it makes a difference. This is life or death for some of these people,” Thomas said.

Currently the field studies course is a graduate level course, but in the fall semester it will be available to undergraduates as well, Thomas said. Students from all colleges are invited to join the program, as long as they are dedicated and want to get out and work, Thomas said. In the short time he has worked with USU students, Thomas said he has been impressed with the work ethic of the students, calling it a “blue collar hustle.”

“Give me any problem in this world and a set of USU students, and we’ll solve it in an extraordinary way. I’m serious about that,” Thomas said.

-seth.h@aggiemail.usu.edu