Students from the Seidman College of Business at Grand Valley State University have used teamwork to create programs that will benefit the university community and others in the Grand Rapids area.

“This semester each team in the class has to make an event to benefit the community,” said Christopher Timmerman, a senior double majoring in finance and accounting who acted as the public relations person for the MGT 345 Team Building class.

Professor Monica Allen of the management department at GVSU said she has been assigning this project every semester that she has taught the class.

“Basically we have a project where something has to be done in the community throughout the semester,” Allen said.

The projects had to be something that impacts a certain community, big enough for the group to handle, finished within the semester and relevant to the course.

Allen said she made suggestions of things that have been done in the past and gave examples of what students could do, but the class generally has freedom to choose.

Some groups worked to collect food, laundry items, paper products and toiletries, or money to buy those essential items.

“It’s all going to be donated to the Grand Valley Student Food Pantry that’s being managed by the Women’s Center, to be available for Grand Valley students for free,” Allen said.

Many teams also worked with off-campus organizations to raise and collect donations for their projects.

“My team’s goal is specifically to raise peanut butter and jelly for the food pantry, and through that we’re actually collecting money,” said Ryan Cronk, a member of Team Balto.

Team Balto worked with the Grand Raggidy Roller Girls, a female roller derby league in Grand Rapids, which allowed the team to have a table at one of its events. The Goldfish Swim School also allowed Team Balto to arrange a family swim night with proceeds going to the project.

Team Pizza Kings is working to raise money for the food pantry to buy whatever items it needs.
The team organized a “change war” with Living Stones Academy, a faith-based school in the Grand Rapids area. The “change war” asked students from each class to bring in change to be collected and donated to the food pantry.

Matthew Brandon, a senior marketing major, said his team No Laker Goes Hungry was doing a lemonade stand to raise money. The team members also went out separately to find donations from a few different corporations. They also set up drop boxes throughout campus to collect donations.

Michelle Vargo, a senior management and general business major, said Team Fiesta was working with a few different restaurants in the area.

“Friday’s downtown, Peppino’s in Allendale and Uccello’s in Standale are all going to be donating a portion of the profits from people who come in with a flyer,” Vargo said.

Team Fiesta has been handing out the flyers around campus and at churches, as well as promoting it on Facebook. In addition, the team has been collecting nonperishable foods, and had planned to hold a food drive in Allendale.

Senior marketing major Andrew Zack said his team, Asparagus Collective, was recently at the Fulton Street Farmer’s Market with a coffee stand to raise donations.

“Aside from that, we are getting, hopefully, donations from Nestle of water bottles,” Zack said. “Then also going to local dentists’ offices and getting toothbrushes and toothpaste and stuff.”

Another team contacted local businesses to get funding for a trip to see the West Michigan Whitecaps.

“We are working in direct connection with the Boys and Girls Club of America,” said Josh Francis, a senior marketing and management major. “We found corporate sponsors in order to sponsor a night at Fifth Third ballpark for 17 underprivileged youths coming from the intercity area of Grand Rapids.”

Team Avenger was working to provide meals for families of children facing severe illnesses at the Ronald McDonald House of Grand Rapids.

“We can sit down and talk with families,” Tripplehorn said of the event, which would give him a chance to share his own experiences of surviving cancer. “I have a personal connection, a personal understanding of how everything is going on with that.”

Allen said she believes students learn better by doing rather than sitting and listening to lectures, which is part of the reason she assigns the project.

“The whole goal is to help the students be able to learn how to work together as a team and to accomplish a goal,” she said. “To find their own resources, use their own creativity, to really kind of make something happen.”
[email protected]