When it comes to doing business, a group of Cox MBA students certainly have their hearts set in the right place.
The consulting club within Cox has a business alliance with a local charity organization, Wipe Out Kids’ Cancer. The nearly 30-year-old organization’s mission is to raise funds for research in eradicating pediatric cancer.
Last year, the organization caught the eye of a group of consulting club members, so they went to Paula Strasser, director of the Cox Business Leadership Center and the BBA Leadership Institute, as well as an adjunct professor. Strasser has been a board member of WOKC for seven years.
“The consulting club contacted me a year and a half ago, and just knew I had a heart for servant leadership and non-for profits,” she said.
Strasser said in former years, the club had not grown much because they were only focused on theoretical consulting situations. Speakers gave advice and students visited corporations, but they really weren’t gaining the experience and practice that they needed for the real world. So they turned to WOKC, which warmly embraced their offer to help.
Gavin Worthy, a board member for WOKC and president of the student advisory board for MBAs, explained that the alliance is beneficial to not only the organization, but to the students as well.
“The idea is that we are looking for ways for the students to be able to apply the business they are receiving in business school during their time here, and taking what you learn in the class room and applying it in a hands-on fashion. It increases a learning opportunity when you can get your hands dirty, so to speak,” he said.
Where WOKC benefits is that the organization is greeted with the partnership and skill sets of a group of bright young MBA students who can see things from a different perspective.
WOKC is still very much an entrepreneurial organization, Worthy said, and therefore needs assistance in reaching all of its long-term goals. The members of the consulting club put their heads together to come up with various projects for the organization to meet these goals.
“A lot of organizations … have great ideas, great visions, but they really lack the ability to execute on those, and it starts with the ability to plan. And I think that’s where the students can help us,” he said.
Kevin Shtofman, the vice president of projects for the consulting club and the student board member for the organization, said the projects are directed towards progressing the organization’s over-all efficiency
The consulting club creates ideas for projects and presents them to Shtofman, who presents these ideas to the WOKC board. This past year, the club came up with three successful projects for the organization.
Shtofman headed up Strategic Planning, an ongoing project he created in order to create a new mission statement, a new set of values, and a five-year strategic plan for the organization.
Other projects included the marketing group, which essentially looked for ways to reach out to younger generations by creating groups on Facebook and MySpace, and the Financial Metrics group, which was designed to look at the financials of the charity.
“In the end, a non-profit is still a business, it’s just the end goal is not to pay the CEO a big bonus, it’s really just to grow the charity,” Shtofman said.
In the next year, the club hopes to successfully create a template for assessing the cost-benefits of the organization’s fundraising events.
The members of the consulting club are not required to help with these projects, however, the help is completely voluntary.
So how do these students find time to contribute when they are buried with school work, job searches and internship hunts? Both Worthy and Shtofman agreed that the cause makes every extra hour worth it.
“I couldn’t really buy the argument that some of the MBAs just don’t have time, because I know that with our able minds and bodies, and without having to deal with going through cancer as a young child, we can find time within our busy schedules, and the school should be proud that the students have,” Worthy said.
The organization, however, has a major handicap. Worthy said it is the “Best-Kept Secret” handicap, in that the organization is very well respected, but not very well-known, and that is something both the MBA consulting club and WOKC are looking to change.
The consulting club members are looking to bring even more awareness to the organization in 2010. The organization is currently only receiving assistance from the graduate students. However, Worthy hopes that within the next year, undergraduate students will join in the ranks against pediatric cancer.
“When you meet a child that is being treated for cancer, it’s just indescribable. There are a lot of charity events out there. There are a lot of golf tournaments, there are a lot of galas, but there aren’t many occasions where you will go into a hospital and see a child who’s had their head shaved because they’re about to go through chemo. It’s a really powerful image. And its’ something that is hard to shy away from and ignore,” Shtofman said.
In memory of Laurren SmithThis past weekend, Laurren Smith, a 13-year-old girl from Kaufman County, lost her battle with Osteosarcoma, a rare form of cancer.
She was one of the ambassadors for a local charity organization, Wipe Out Kids’ Cancer.Wipe Out Kids’ Cancer was created with the mission to find a day when children like Laurren will come out victorious against cancer.
One of their most successful programs is the Ambassadors Program. Staff at Children’s Medical Center choose a handful of cancer patients to sponsor for a year. The program allows the children to forget about their illness and enjoy being a kid through various activities, including trips to Texas Rangers games, pizza parties and fishing camp.
Sadly, not every ambassador sees the end of his or her year. Laurren Smith is one of the reasons the organization exists.
Cindy Brinker Simmons, the founder of Wipe Out Kids’ Cancer, says the day the organization goes out of business is the day it has succeeded in its mission.
“I have been to far too many funerals,” explains Simmons. “It reminds me that we cannot stop until we have a 100 percent survival rate.”
