Spring greetings from the Experiential Learning (EL) team — Megan Piersma, Jim Cunningham and Ben Wilson. We’ve had an exciting year since becoming a team of three in July 2022 and we’re grateful to have this opportunity to tell you more about who we are, what we do and where we’re headed.

I (Megan) joined Mendoza in June 2022 as the director of Experiential Learning. I was drawn to the opportunity to innovate the existing experiential learning programs for graduate students and reimagine what experiential learning could be for all Mendoza students — graduate and undergraduate. And I must say this first year of work has lived up to my expectations.

I have deeply appreciated how I’ve been embraced by the Mendoza community. From a summer round of golf with Tracy Biggs and Natalie Sargent, to my first Mendoza tailgate, after-work drinks at Legends and Big Ten basketball trash talk over Slack (I’m looking at you Shane McCoy), you’ve welcomed me and made me feel at home.
You’ve also been open to new ideas and eager to co-create transformative learning experiences that challenge our students to apply what they’ve learned in the classroom, demonstrate what they’re capable of and create a vision for their future. With your help, the EL team has been able to:

• Send more than 200 MBA students out on consulting engagements across the U.S. and around the world.
• Run the MBA Mod-Away programs in Silicon Valley and Santiago, Chile.
• Have all MSM students complete a consulting project with a South Bend for-profit or nonprofit organization.
• Give 23 MSM and 15 MSA students an immersive business and cultural experience in Madrid and Barcelona, Spain.\Create a nonprofit immersion for 15 MNA students in Orange County, California.
• And so much more!

Thank you for your collaboration and support. Experiential learning is truly a College-wide effort.

Our team is eagerly anticipating the start of the 2023-2024 school year as we will introduce a number of changes to make our team more efficient and our programming more enriching. To start, we’re recrafting Jim and Ben’s positions to better align with our new strategic direction. They will each have responsibility for a functional area of expertise that will allow our team to more effectively serve more degree programs and more students.

Jim will lead business development and project sourcing for all the project-based learning opportunities supported by our office across degree programs. In this newly defined role, he will be responsible for:

1. Implementing a new CRM tool for EL company and individual contacts;
2. Identifying leads in coordination with key internal partners such as Admissions, Alumni Relations, Career Development, Corporate Relations and Development;
3. Administering and evaluating the success of digital marketing campaigns;
4. Securing the necessary amount of domestic and international project opportunities to meet student demand;
5. Overseeing the collection of project fees; and
6. Stewarding our project sponsors in ways that are meaningful to them in order to encourage continued and expanded engagement with the College.

These activities will become his year-round focus and give him the opportunity to become more of a cross-functional leader within the College. This change will also leverage the sales and marketing skills he developed in his previous roles in University Annual Giving and Mendoza Career Development Employer Relations. Jim is already busy building up our experiential learning lead pipeline and I’m so grateful that he’s eagerly embraced this new way for him to contribute.

Ben will lead curriculum development, delivery and assessment. He will be responsible for:

1. Co-creating the learning objectives and program design with the academic directors and key functional collaborators for each EL offering;
2. Developing and implementing the evaluation and assessment tools for each program;
3. Serving as the thought leader on how Mendoza EL programming can integrate Catholic social teaching a make explicit opportunities to Grow the Good in Business; and
4. Overseeing the operations of EL programming including student communications and events; student registration, application and selection processes; Canvas course sites; travel, health and safety logistics; student expense and reimbursement policies and processes; and grading.

Ben has been the driving force behind so many enhancements to our student programs already this year and I’m so excited to have him unleash even more of his creativity as we launch Grow Irish Week.

What is Grow Irish Week, you ask? Well … drumroll please … Grow Irish is our new branding and framing for the artist formerly known as Interterm.
Grow Irish Week builds on the College’s imperative to Grow the Good in Business and reflects our desire to have students grow holistically:

• As business professionals and leaders.
• As engaged, responsible citizens.
• And as the Irish — members of the vibrant Notre Dame alumni community.

Grow Irish Week will occur twice annually in mid-October and mid-March. As one of the signature experiences of a Mendoza education, it will feature immersive, off-campus learning programs that equip students with marketable skills, allow them to contribute to the greater good of the organizations and communities they’re serving, and connect them with the unparalleled Notre Dame alumni community for mentorship and networking opportunities that will support and sustain them throughout their careers.

Grow Irish experiences will be tailored to the unique academic and career trajectories of students within each degree program. During Fall Grow Irish Week, more emphasis will be placed on helping students discern their possible career path and gain relevant, professional experience. Programmatic options will include activities such as:

• Skill-building courses focused on the development of practical and/or technical skills that will make students more competitive in the marketplace.
• Consulting engagements with businesses and nonprofits that will allow students to create lasting value for an organization and its stakeholders.
• Alumni engagement and career networking events that showcase professional opportunities in a variety of industries and functional areas.

As students near graduation, Spring Grow Irish Week will require them to navigate greater degrees of complexity in order to encourage mastery of technical skills and enhance their ability to work effectively on cross-functional teams. Whether working in an interdisciplinary team, navigating travel logistics, or communicating across geographical and cultural nuances, Spring Grow Irish will help students prepare for the next step in their career journey.

There is so much more detail we could share about Grow Irish Week, so if you’d like to do a deep dive into what Grow Irish Week will look like for MBAs, MSMs, MNAs, etc., we’d be happy to meet with you or present at one of your department or team meetings.

Thank you again to so many of you who helped us develop and refine the Grow Irish branding and the custom programming that will happen for each degree program. We believe Grow Irish Week will become a key experiential learning initiative that will allow us to continue the good work of producing Mendoza graduates who 1) possess the critical thinking skills, communication competencies and leadership abilities required in the global marketplace; 2) embody our institutional values particularly as it relates to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging; and 3) demonstrate cultural humility and competence in their professional contexts and personal lives.

The passion our team brings to our work stems from our shared fundamental belief and lived truth that education changes lives. It is our great joy to know that we are directly contributing to the development of emerging adults who will go on to achieve professional successes that are defined by their personal integrity and contributions to the global community.

Thank you for sharing our enthusiasm and commitment to Mendoza students!

Megan

Megan Piersma
Director of Experiential Learning