Are you tired of just sitting in class listening to lectures and memorizing what seems like a lot of meaningless words in order to get A's on the tests?  Would you like to actually DO something while you are learning?  If you answered yes to these questions, you now have the opportunity to do something about it, IF you plan ahead so that you can participate in ucmo's Integrative Business Experience (IBE) program.  Instead of listening to lectures and working with hypothetical cases, students in IBE learn through the experience of creating and managing their own start-up company (based on a real money loan of up to $5,000) and using the profit to organize and carry out a hands-on community service project-but, that's merely the beginning. The IBE experience opens lots of doors of opportunity: internships and job offers become more readily accessible. Steven Olsen (IBE, Fall 2004).

To participate in IBE, you must concurrently enroll in four courses:three junior-level core business courses (Marketing MKT 3405, Management MGT 3315, and Information Systems CIS 3630) and an Entrepreneurship and Community Service Practicum course.  (The practicum course counts as an elective in MGT, MKT, or CIS.) In order to take advantage of this opportunity, however, you need to plan your schedule around enrolling in the IBE program.  If you take any of the three required courses on a stand-alone basis you will not be eligible to participate in IBE in a later semester.

Integrative Business Experience Prerequisites: ACCT2102, CIS1605 or ACCT2110, Econ1010, Econ1011 FIN2801 and Junior Standing

MGT3315 will not be a prerequisite for CIS3630 (this applies only for the Integrative Business Experience, all other sections of CIS3630 will still require MGT3315 as a prerequisite)

MGT3385 Integrative Business Experience Practicum: Students will apply concepts from the concurrent courses to their own start-up business venture and to a community service experience. This course must be taken concurrently with special sections of MGT3315, MKT3405 and CIS3630. Prerequisites: ACCT2102, CIS1605 or ACCT2110, Econ1010, Econ1011 and Junior Standing.  This course can be converted to either CIS3685 or MKT3485.

For additional information, click here to find a PDF article describing the program at the University of Oklahoma, after which the IBE program at ucmo was patterned.  If you have questions, please feel free to contact Dr. Christine Wright cwright@ucmo1.ucmo.edu, Dr. Larry Michaelsen lmichaelsen@ucmo1.ucmo.edu or Dr. Mary McCord mccord@ucmo1.ucmo.edu .

You can download this page as a WORD document HERE.