Cote Faculty Fellowships and student internship strengthen Business Growth Mentor and Analysis Program.
For more than three decades with WSU, Carson College of Business Emeriti Professors Jane and Joe Cote not only shaped the department but influenced hundreds of students. They were both business professors and held a number of administrative leadership positions during the course of their careers. Joe was instrumental in founding the Business Growth Mentor and Analysis Program in 2011. Their work continues, thanks to the Cote Faculty Fellowship, which they established in 2022, and their support for a student internship within Business Growth MAP.
The overall goal of the gift was to expand client-based experiential learning opportunities for business students at WSU Vancouver. It does so in two ways: by supporting Cote Faculty Fellows to infuse courses with such learning opportunities and to push the frontiers of their scholarship; and by funding a student intern position for Business Growth MAP, which, while providing valuable career skills to the intern, also allows staff to expand the program to underrepresented groups in the Vancouver area.
Business Growth MAP is WSU Vancouver's award-winning student consultancy. Each term, student groups team up with small businesses and nonprofits to help them grow. Students work under faculty supervision and with the help of volunteer mentors. Since 2011, the program has provided approximately 164,500 hours of pro bono consulting, resulting in more than $17 million in new revenue generated for the local economy. And with 95% of WSU Vancouver students staying in the region post-graduation, the program is placing experienced graduates into the local economy.
Kerby Boschee, senior manager for Business Growth MAP, said the fall 2023 intern, Maria Galindo Cordova, is bilingual in Spanish and English, enabling the program to expand by connecting with small business owners whose first language is Spanish.
The faculty fellowships have also been fruitful, according to current fellows Ben Warnick and Alex Kier, both associate professors of entrepreneurship. "Giving opportunities for students to relate their own experience, case studies, role playing and current events with class concepts has paid great dividends in student engagement and learning," Warnick said, "and it has made class more fun." The fellowship has also enabled him to complete research on how entrepreneurs can structure their work to experience meaningfulness amid financial tensions and market pressure.
Kier added, "The Cote donation will allow us to collaborate with other faculty and staff to enhance Business Growth MAP's overall excellence and ensure our students receive the highest-quality education possible."