THE INTEGRATIVE BUSINESS EXPERIENCE (IBE): AN INTEGRATED, HANDS-ON FOUNDATION FOR UNDERGRADUATE BUSINESS EDUCATION

摘要

The Integrative Business Experience (IBE) is a practical and effective program for achievingthree very challenging educational objectives: 1) integrating content across multiple corebusiness courses, 2) linking theory and practice early in students’ degree program and, 3)providing large numbers of students with what employers view as real and meaningful workexperience. IBE students concurrently enroll in three required junior core courses and apracticum in which 20-30 member student companies get an actual bank loan (of up to $5,000),create and operate a start-up a business and use the profit to finance a hands-on communityservice project—all in a single semester. Since the first pilot in 2003, 1,105 IBE students havecreated and operated 50 businesses that have received $113, 543 in loans, generated revenue of$440,516 and contributed their profit ($242,973) and time (17,005 hours) to community serviceorganizations.