HCBA’s Integrative Business Experience (IBE)

Harmon College of Business students at UCM have the option to participate in a program that links their learning to a real-world experience. IBE students are required to create and manage two significant enterprises: an actual start-up company and a hands-on community service project. Thus, IBE students have the opportunity to: 1) develop interpersonal and group-interaction skills in a work-like setting, and 2) learn from their experience in applying key business concepts and analytical tools.

Participation in the IBE option requires students to enroll in a four-course block that includes three required junior-level core business courses and an Entrepreneurship and Community Service Practicum course. The link between learning and experience occurs because the content of the core courses will be specifically sequenced to support students in organizing and managing their business and service ventures. As a result, IBE students will develop a clear “big-picture” understanding of business operations because, on an ongoing basis, they will be using concepts and tools from all three core courses to guide their decisions in the business and service organizations.

Program Highlights

• Students learn in classes in which the instruction is delivered using Team-Based Learning®. Thus, instead of listening to lectures, most of their in-class time is spent working in a 7-member learning team.

• Students work as an "employee" of a 35-member company that becomes a “laboratory” in which they engage in two ventures—a start-up business and a service project on behalf of a non-profit community organization.

• Students spend the first 7 weeks developing a business plan for a start-up company whose profits will finance a hands-on community service project. The plan is presented to a loan review committee to obtain the capital (real money up to $5,000) needed to implement the plan.