Cornerstone to Capstone: Undergraduate Business Core Delivers Transformative Experiences

This “cornerstone-to-capstone” approach is reflected in the real-world corporate projects that all undergraduate students complete as part of their Palumbo-Donahue School of Business education.

Moreover, with their “cornerstone” experience, new undergraduates get started right away. Each Fall, the entire incoming class of new business students enroll in the First Year Innovation Experience (FYIE) course. This intensive course prepares first-year students for success by introducing entrepreneurial thinking and developing their influence skills. A signature part of the FYIE is its innovation challenge, a semester-long competition involving an external partner.

For the past four years, the School has partnered with Ernst and Young (EY) to issue a “challenge” to students in the FYIE course. In Fall 2022, for instance, EY tasked students with using their Gen Z perspective and their experience with the COVID-19 pandemic to propose ways that EY can improve the working world. Students were divided into teams to address one of five categories presented with the challenge issued by EY: social impact or mission of the company; professional development; well-being; workplace recognition; and workplace environment.

Since the entire first year class is involved with FYIE, a total of 50 teams were created to tackle the challenge, with each student first developing an individual idea and presenting it in an elevator pitch format to other members of their teams. Working with an assigned mentor, each team selected the best idea from their group and then spent the remainder of the semester brainstorming, researching, pitching, and ultimately developing a detailed plan to answer the challenge. The top five teams eventually moved onto the final round and presented their plan to a panel of EY judges. Up for grabs was the opportunity to interface with EY leaders, compete for $15,000 in scholarship money, earn a standout resume line, and make a real-word impact. Indeed, EY has been keenly interested in students’ recommendations and considers implementing many of them, particularly given the firm’s need to recruit and retain Gen Z employees.

From its inception, the FYIE has been led by Leslie Mansfield, an Executive-in-Residence at the School. She has nearly 40 years of experience in project management gained through innovation leadership roles at Bombardier and Westinghouse. “The challenge and reward associated with this effort comes from being able to guide approximately 300 first semester students in the development of relevant, practical ideas that are able to be implemented by the client,” Leslie says. “The most amazing part is that all of this occurs in one semester. Over a period of 16 weeks, students create meaningful improvement ideas that result in a sophisticated, professional presentation to EY, a world class advisory firm.”

On the other end of their academic journey, all business seniors take the School’s signature Strategic Management Capstone course. This course includes a project with a corporate partner— one that is structured as a competition and that offers students the opportunity to apply and integrate all of the skills they have acquired at Duquesne. In fact, all sections of the course work on the same corporate project in a given semester, with students competing in teams to earn the right to present to the client firm at the end of the term. Students must not only apply all the business tools and frameworks they have acquired, but work effectively as a team to develop sound recommendations that will address the client’s strategic challenges.

The key to this capstone experience is having a robust set of strategic challenges presented by an engaged corporate partner and client. Participating firms provide on-boarding briefings to students in the course, covering project scope and including necessary context and background details in doing so.

"All business seniors take the School's signature Strategic Management Capstone course. This course includes a project with a corporate partner— one that is structured as a competition and that offers students the opportunity to apply and integrate all of the skills they have acquired at Duquesne."

Since 2019, Fortune 500 giant WESCO International has partnered with the School on a variety of course-embedded projects, including the Strategic Management Capstone course. For instance, WESCO has also been heavily involved as a partner of the School’s Center for Leadership in Professional Selling since 2020 and has participated in cornerstone and capstone courses for the marketing major.

As a key corporate partner for the Strategic Management Capstone, WESCO formulates strategic questions it wants students to address, provides the requisite information, and introduces students to Duquesne alumni who work for the firm and who can serve as sounding boards, offer advice and share perspectives during the semester. For instance, during the Fall 2022 semester, students taking the Strategic Management Capstone were divided into 18 teams and competed for the chance to present their findings and recommendations to senior WESCO executives. Three teams emerged as finalists and made their presentations at WESCO’s corporate headquarters in a boardroom full of executives. Each team presentation was followed by a lively Q&A session, with Duquesne students providing thoughtful answers to the questions posed by WESCO executives.

In addition to earning course credit, the three finalist teams also took home cash prizes totaling several thousand dollars. Finishing in 1st place for the Fall 2022 semester, the team of Andrew Chipka, Elizabeth Sklodowski, Nicole Park, and Luke Hirata took home the $2,000 top prize, with each member taking home $500. All of the finalist teams offered impressive and compelling strategic recommendations, including some new business ideas, that WESCO executives indicated they would be considering carefully.

Since becoming a corporate partner with the School of Business, WESCO has also hired nearly 30 Duquesne business students. This illustrates the value corporate partnerships offer to the firms that participate as well as to our School and our students. WESCO is once again participating as the corporate client for sections of the Strategic Management Capstone course in Fall 2023.