Will This Work in the Real World?

With so many opportunities at Kellogg, you may find yourself having a difficult time choosing which courses to take and which activities to participate in that will best help you achieve your academic, personal and career goals. Fortunately, the wide range of experiential learning offerings means there’s something (or many somethings) for everyone, and a few of our current students are here, offering their first-hand accounts.

“I4I (Innovate 4 Impact) was a fantastic class because I had the chance to interact with students across Northwestern schools (outside of Kellogg), including the schools of design, engineering and integrated marketing communications. It gave me the opportunity to interact with a whole new set of students that brought a different perspective, which added a lot to our project and also to my experience learning from my peers. Additionally, this class provides a unique alternative to GIM because I had the chance to work in a small group of six people with a very focused topic. We tackled the issue of waste in the food supply chain in Brazil. It was a great experience to formulate a business plan that offered a solution to a real-world business problem based on our in-class studies and in-country research. The class was a unique mix of discussions, solid content lectures and amazing guest speakers. For example, the founder of World Bicycle Relief came into class to discuss the many issues that come with operating a non-profit in Africa.” -Justin Noodleman ’13

“Sustainability Lab gave me experience working on a real-world sustainability problem and allowed me to see our team recommendations implemented in only 10 weeks. S-lab enabled our group to create relationships and a network that eventually resulted in a summer internship opportunity.” -Victoria Zimmerman ’13

“Professor Booth’s Personal Leadership Insights course was one of the best I’ve taken at Kellogg. Through guided self-reflection and weekly interactive class sessions with peers and Professor Booth, I was able to identify my values, strengths and needs, as well as develop a personal mission statement and a 100-day action plan. From the class, I learned how to practice deep listening and identify others’ strengths in order to better lead and motivate teams. The class prepared me to be successful as the Project Lead of a 12-person team during my internship. Additionally, it has helped me focus on continually evaluating and prioritizing what is truly important in my life.” -Paul Janczyk ’13

“I have taken three experiential classes in my three open quarters at Kellogg and have another slated for next quarter.

1) Personal Leadership Insights gave me the structure I needed to actually learn about myself. It’s funny to take a class to do that, but I don’t often think throughout the day, “What are my needs, strengths, weaknesses, values…” This class gave me the framework to do that and also a tool in the activity plan to take action in my life that met my needs, strengths and values. I actually visit that often to make choices for, not only my career, but also my academic and personal life. It also gave me a network of lifelong friends who I shared this journey with. A year later, and we are still getting together for brunches to talk about our lives and leadership development.

2) NUvention Innovate 4 Impact is one of those remarkable courses at Kellogg that you sort of wish you could take more than once because there are so many opportunities to have an impact in this world. My project team was a cross-disciplinary group of students: an undergraduate in social policy, two MMM students, a 2Y MBA, a PhD in Economics and a Masters student in Engineering Design and Innovation. I learned almost as much from them as I did through the course work (and the coursework was incredible). A team taught by social entrepreneurship guru Jamie Jones and the co-creators of Greater Good Studio, George and Sarah Aye, I was a sponge for 15 weeks, soaking up all they had to teach me about design thinking, storytelling, ethnographic research, financial modeling, coordinating stakeholders, developing cultural sensitivities, pitching a business plan to investors… It was a capstone course, combining strategy, marketing, finance, entrepreneurship, social enterprise and any other discipline at Kellogg you may think of. My project transformed multiple times throughout the two quarters, but that is life, and adjusting to the needs of a population is just part of the recipe for being a success in your endeavor to impact.

3) Taught by the rock star creator of KIN Global, Professor Robert Wolcott, Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CI&E) is a phenomenal course for those who are entrepreneurial but want to make that sort of impact on a large organization. In this class, each project team of 6-8 develops a new business innovation for an existing corporation, with all the bells and whistles – competitive landscaping, market sizing, financial forecasts, consumer insights, product or process development, etc. The end goal of the class is to create a pitch to the CEO of said company on why the new business you have developed makes sense for his corporation. This capstone course forces Kellogg students who are used to (and comfortable with) converging on solutions to take a step back out of their comfort zone and diverge from normal thinking to consider the possibilities that don’t exist yet, the problems that haven’t been identified and the markets that haven’t been tapped.” -Jacqueline Endres ’13