Gies College of Business receives $50,000
Students studying and meeting up for group projects at the Gies College of Business atruim on Nov 14, 2018. Gies’ MBA programs will be available solely online following the graduation of the current class, following trends of anytime and anywhere education programs.
March 27, 2019
Gies College of Business received a $50,000 grant from the Procter and Gamble Fund Higher Education Grant program.
The grant is geared toward enhancing experiential learning programs and developing a leadership curriculum to train and develop student leaders in those experiential learning environments.
Andrew Allen, director of experiential learning at Gies, wrote in an email that the college has moved toward focusing on experiential learning for its students.
“At a high level, experiential learning is learning by doing. It’s about integrating concepts from the classroom and applying them in a real-world scenario,” Allen said. “At Gies Business, we have primarily focused on project-based learning where students spend an entire semester solving an issue for a real company.”
Aaron Bennett, senior marketing communications specialist for Gies, wrote in an email that this experiential learning approach has shown positive results among students.
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
“Our students have proven repeatedly that experiential learning enhances their Gies education,” Bennett said. “In fact, 95 percent of students say they have a better story to tell recruiters because of their learning by doing experience.”
The Procter and Gamble Fund Higher Education Grant Program awards specific programs in their efforts to prepare students for success in business.
Allen said Gies being chosen for the grant is a marker of the college’s quality and rates of success.
“We make an emphasis on building leadership skills and P&G was also keen on supporting that effort,” Allen said. “At Gies, we really believe that theory plus practice makes for a better learning experience and better student outcomes. This approach is a part of our identity and integral to the Gies student experience and we’re grateful for the vote of confidence from a great company like P&G.”
There are currently plans to implement short and intense extended boot camp at Gies in which leaders learn concepts such as planning, delegating tasks, managing a client relationship and more.
“This grant will allow us to do two things: build out our leadership development program for students and help fund a multi-university experiential learning consortium that we are spearheading,” Allen said.
