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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.
"If I was to let them choose, it becomes volunteerism and it's not service-learning because I can't actually support all aspects of the project," said Flannery.
The Greater Mankato United Way is a local, independent nonprofit organization. Some of the duties of the organization are to assess and target local service needs, raise funds, allocate funds and collaborate and form community partnerships.
"I think this is a wonderful partnership with Dr. Flannery's class," said resource development director Christi Wilking. "United Way has never had much of a presence on campus, but this project is definitely changing that. I think the students have some very creative ideas and I am excited to see the results."
Flannery's class was a part of the Combined Charities Campaign kickoff event last Thursday. Combined Charities is an organization for state employees to donate to the charities of their choice through the convenience of payroll deduction. The Combined Charities Campaign is planned and run each year by state employees and there are 37 charitable federations that represent hundreds of charities working in communities across the state. In 2008, MSU ranked second with $21,417 worth of donations.
MSU President Richard Davenport spoke at the kickoff event and recognized what he called "the outstanding work done by Brenda Flannery's class."
"I have three things I hope my students take away from this experience," Flannery said. "One, that they are very capable professionals, two, a much better understanding of the importance of working with others and three, a deeper understanding of the broader community."
Ashley Wall is a Reporter staff writer
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