Sadie Ouellet, Bachelor of Commerce with a major in Business economics and Law and minor in finance, 3rd year.
Hannah Elding, third year, Bachelor of Commerce with Cooperative Education, majoring in Marketing and minoring in Political Science.
Elena Schnider, Bachelor of Commerce with a major in Strategic Entrepreneurship and Management, 3rd year.
Mattea, Bachelor of Commerce with a major in Marketing with a minor in Business Law and Economics, 5th year.
Working with Megan at Sustain SU was so much fun, and it was a really great opportunity! We learned a lot about Sustain SU and its impact on the university while also finding out some of the areas where it might have needed to adjust its marketing to increase the desire of students to attend the Green for Good Market. This was our task throughout the semester! We took a hands-on approach and created different marketing techniques and tools that can be used by Sustain SU in the future to help market the Green for Good Market to achieve one of their goals of increasing student awareness and participation in the Green for Good Market.
During our placement, we focused on sustainable fashion activities. We worked with the University of Alberta Sustain SU to learn about their role in helping the University of Alberta students union learn more about sustainability and become more involved in sustainable practices. We specifically developed a marketing plan for Sustain SU to help increase the awareness of the Green for Good market. We developed our skills in relation to marketing sustainability and other environmental concepts to consumers both in class and in working with Sustain SU. Overall, we all learned a great deal about the benefits of sustainable shopping and how to promote sustainability to others.
Whenever we needed more guidance from Sustain SU, we would contact them and make sure we were clear in our communication to ensure we were able to get all of the information we needed to make our marketing plan work for them. We were given three different goals from the Sustain SU and narrowed our focus to provide a higher quality marketing plan to work on solving one of their goals instead of smaller mediocre plans that would address each of them. We ensured our project objectives aligned with environmentally conscious goals by periodically checking in with one another and our community partners to understand better how we would make our project work for them.
Students should consider getting involved in a CSL course because it will change their perspective in so many ways. It is so different from simply working at an organization or working for a company; you are trying to solve a real problem that a company has with the knowledge you have learned in a classroom setting, which really allows you to apply what you have learned to help in improving a company. It is really fulfilling to see all of the work you have put in throughout the semester come together into a project that will hopefully make a difference for that organization. Because of this course, we are likely to remember many more of these concepts and practices because we were using them as we were learning about them.
One piece of advice we would give to another student considering CSL would be not to shy away from getting involved. One of the highlights of a CSL course is seeing the impact that the partners are making in their communities and the impact of your participation with them. It’s really awesome to have such an integrated opportunity to learn hands-on, apply those classroom skills to real life, and make a difference within your community.