More than 30 Miami-area community organizations benefitted from the work of undergraduates last fall as partners in the School’s FIRST Step program.  FIRST Step, an acronym for Freshman Integrity, Responsibility and Success through Teamwork, is a mandatory freshman course that connects students with organizations to assist them with meeting the real-world business and other challenges they face.

FIRST Step was designed to anchor the first-semester business curriculum.  Students learn essential business critical thinking skills through real-world case studies, lectures, and multimedia presentations.  A pivotal aspect of the course requires that freshmen cultivate their abilities to work in a team environment. Mentored by an experienced upper-class business student, the freshman cohort engages with a local not-for-profit organization that has presented a particular business challenge that needs to be addressed. Each project is designed to enhance these nonprofit organizations’ abilities to communicate more effectively with their constituents through activities such as branding, social networking, and market research. At the end of the semester the teams present the results of their work to their clients.

One of the organizations participating in fall 2010 was the South Florida American Cancer Society, which partnered with student teams on several projects. One group of students was charged with creating a marketing strategy for the organization’s upcoming Relay for Life event.

“ACS is a volunteer organization so we cannot do the work that we do without support like this and the work that you all have done,” said Sean Kramer, executive director of the American Cancer Society for Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, during the final student presentation.