Y on the Road

This past summer, students in Dr. Timothy Palmer’s strategic management MBA course got the opportunity to participate in service-learning and volunteer in a meaningful way in the Kalamazoo community—helping the YMCA of Greater Kalamazoo market its full range of services to community members through a carnival-style event in downtown Kalamazoo dubbed “Y on the Road.”

“The idea was to engage our MBA students in service-learning and incorporate active learning into the course,” says Palmer. “My students jumped at the idea.”

In order to distinguish the undertaking from volunteerism in general, Palmer created a discussion thread on e-learning, and students researched reasons why firms get engaged in communities. The class members derived a list of close to 20 reasons why businesses get involved. “From those, we voted on which three we would focus on as a class, and this would serve as the vehicle for reflection,” says Palmer. “The three included building empathy, developing leadership and connecting with community.” Throughout the event planning and in the weeks leading up to Y on the Road, the students talked about the importance of these reasons.

Palmer challenged students to think about how this experience would teach them something new about leadership, and he encouraged them to meet three new people at the event.

The entire class helped to plan Y on the Road with six students volunteering for the leadership team, which allowed Palmer to remove himself from the details and gave students the chance to run with their ideas.

Craig Snider, YMCA branch executive director, visited the class twice prior to the event to discuss his goal with the event, which was to begin conveying the idea that the YMCA is not a health club or a building but a provider of services to families, many of whom lack transportation. Building healthy families will increasingly require taking the Y "on the road."

The event took place at Lincoln Elementary School on the north side of Kalamazoo and involved food, fun and education. Activities for children included basketball, kickball, tug of war, four square, paper airplane making and coloring. In addition, information was provided to families about the organization’s services. The event was funded by the YMCA, and the MBA students executed the event logistics and marketing.

Students from Palmer’s strategic business solutions undergraduate course helped with event promotion with neighborhood residents and assisted in running games for the children who attended Y on the Road. The project was facilitated by Shawn Tenney, coordinator of service-learning in the WMU Center for Academic Success Programs, who connected Palmer with the YMCA’s leadership to make the service-learning meaningful for students and beneficial to the community.

“I think the biggest benefit for me was connecting with members of the community,” says MBA student Kenneth Harshman. “I listened to three generations in one family, all having raised or raising children in the same north side neighborhood, talk about and recognize the importance of events like the Y on the Road in their community. I believe it is through activities like this—those that stretch the walls of the MBA classroom to include the community—that we can work to build stronger leaders who will build stronger businesses that will build stronger communities.”

Palmer’s hope is that the MBA students will take the Y on the Road experience on the road with them in the business world and will be advocates for corporate social responsibility and service in their careers and corporations.

For Harshman, the lasting commitment to service is what will stay with him. “Finding a way to continue to cultivate that community experience and to keep making it beneficial to the participants, both as recipients and as administrators, is a challenge I aim to continue to master through my life, not just my career. I genuinely look forward to seeing the businesses my classmates and I will influence or build with this experience helping to shape or re-frame our thoughts on community leadership and on corporate social responsibility.”