Student Consulting Teams: Learning from College Athletics

Think of college athletics as a metaphor for college education. Imagine student consulting teams made up of students with a variety of skills, and from a variety of disciplines, recruited for an in-depth, long-term, and integrated educational experience based on their performance in leadership classes built around project-based learning experiences. Imagine that students are members of those teams for two, three, or four years, starting out as research assistants and growing and learning until they have an experience as a "team captain" or “account executive.” Imagine that those students are “coached” by experiences servant leaders and social entrepreneurs, and advised by a “Verizon-like” network of hundreds of professionals. Imagine that throughout this experience students learn how to be more creative and collaborative, working with and through a vast network of people to define and solve significant societal problems. Imagine that the students are empowered and challenged to run this program like a business. Imagine those students graduating and being “drafted” into the "pros." Imagine teams that expand and contract in size, drawing students from many disciplines as the need requires. For example, imagine a project focused on delivering food to the hungry. Imagine hiring English majors to write, nursing majors to advise on nutrition, Computer Science majors to design a web site for food banks to better communicate with each other, Management majors to design a more efficient and effective logistics system, education majors to focus on early childhood development, social work majors to connect families to resources, etc. Imagine leadership students learning about leadership and entrepreneurship though actual experience! Imagine inviting at-risk youth to be co-learners of problems and co-creators of solutions to break the cycle of poverty and to spur economic growth and the meeting of physiological, social, and psychological human needs, rather than being perceived as contributing to the problem. Imagine a program that builds on the foundation of a liberal arts education and complements that education by helping prepare students to be leaders. Imagine that this program is self-sustaining--not supported by college tuition—and replicable, a bridge between college and life. Imagine teams that bring various constituencies of the college and community together around important community issues and makes more synergistic use of resources. Imagine no more: think of ASI Consulting.

ASI Consulting:

The ASI Group is nothing like your father's consulting organization. Operating within Hope College's Center for Faithful Leadership, ASI employs creative students from multiple disciplines to take a fresh look at pressing societal needs. They are youthful, idealistic, and their glass is always half-full. They operate outside the box.

Where their elders throw up their hands in despair over social problems that have been around as long as they have, these students are unaware that these problems are insoluble.

Their perspectives are supersized by the technology that is never far from them. They are not afraid of computers and operate as regular travelers on an “internet highway” that gives them immediate access to the world's knowledge and makes them comfortable residents of the global village.

A support team that includes multi-disciplined professors, research experts, an advisory group consisting of business professionals, alumni and friends, and endless access to information offsets their lack of experience. Not only will the students bring fresh energy to problems that many have grown tired of, but the professors of Hope College will also help these students provide innovative thinking to the challenges they face

Most of all, the ASI students care deeply about neighbors in need and long to assist those who provide relief and hope for them.