College of Business Graduate Capstone’s Triple Bottom Line: Students, Businesses, Faculty

Last spring, Kansas State University College of Business graduate students closed their books and turned off their laptops. They had the knowledge, had done the research, and had studied hard for all the exams. What they needed to do now was experience first-hand involvement in a project that had real-life consequences. This would require top-notch problem-solving skills, strong communication, and the ability to work as part of a team. The graduate business capstone provides all that, and more.

The capstone project provides a win-win-win opportunity. It offers real-world business management experiences, fosters connection and growth to local organizations, and it gives College of Business faculty the opportunity to build a network of corporate partners. It is rare that one activity produces a trifecta of positive experiences.

According to Professor Chwen Sheu, Associate Dean for Academic Programs for the College of Business, this is not a coincidence. “In support of the College of Business Strategic Plan, the capstone course is a great mechanism for enhancing student experiential learning, providing service to our business community, and influencing business practice and knowledge.”

Ethan Schultz graduated in 2021 from K-State with a B.S. in Statistics and Data Science, and a minor in Business, and earned a M.S. in Data Analytics (MSDA) in 2022. He is currently a commercial market analyst at ConocoPhillips. “The Business Capstone Program at K-State helped me learn how to become an effective project manager and allowed our group to make an impact in the communities that our client serves. The skills I learned throughout this course helped me develop as a leader and taught me how to bring out the best in each of my teammates. Our project success was a direct result of the kind of students that the K-State MSDA program recruits and is a testament of the mentorship opportunities that students have with the faculty in the College of Business.”

“The MBA capstone course was an invaluable learning experience for my educational and professional career,” said Kensley Fleischer, who graduated with a B.S. in Marketing in 2021, and an MBA in 2022, and is a Marketing Specialist at Shamrock Trading Corporation. “My job requires many of the same skills I learned in the course, such as managing projects, time, and client relationships, all while ensuring the final deliverable is completed efficiently, effectively, and to the satisfaction of the client.”

Andrea Luke earned an MBA from K-State in 2022 and is a Program Manager in K-State’s Staley School of Leadership. “The capstone project is a critical, applied learning experience that represented the culmination of all the academic learning that happened throughout the master’s program. As a result of the capstone project, I have implemented new project management and team building strategies into my real-life job.”

Since 2020, nearly 20 tenure-track faculty and instructors have been involved in capstone projects, and 26 projects have been completed. Satisfaction with partner companies is very high:

Following the many positive results experienced by Centralized Supply Chain Services, the College of Business is now working with them to provide a portion of their education/training program.

ETC Institute, a national research corporation that helps governmental organizations gather resident data to enhance community planning, plans to use the tool created in a K-State capstone project to improve data analysis in reports for local and possibly state governments across the country.

“The report compiled by the team is going to be immeasurably valuable to the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame (KSHOF) as we make plans for our organization's future. The team was engaged throughout the semester and the work they produced shows an incredible amount of time, effort, and understanding of the KSHOF's current position and options for the future.”
Kansas Sports Hall of Fame, 2022

“The presentation created a tremendous amount of buzz in our organization. Everyone was very impressed with the insights presented and the methods and process used to complete the project. Equally valuable was the dialogue during the presentation.”
Steel & Pipe Supply, 2020

“The team did a great job researching trends and finding data that is not always easy to find. The recommendations provided were spot-on with industry standards and the results were presented in a way that was easily digestible when looking at data.”
AIB International, 2022

Businesses and students who want to learn more about K-State’s graduate business capstone are welcome to contact Chwen Sheu.