Beyond the BASE-ics
A unique undergraduate capstone experience gives Leeds
students better command of the tools theyāve learned
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For many Leeds students, the required BASE experience is a chance to see the different lines connecting business disciplines while developing the skills needed to advance their professional development. For Liv Delgado (Busā22), it was so much more.
BASEāshort for BCOR Applied Semester Experience, the core set of business courses Leeds students take in their first two yearsāis a capstone where sophomores apply what theyāve learned to real-world problems. Itās also where Delgado, a junior who interned with Wiland over the summer, started to doubt whether her accounting and finance major aligned with her aspirations.
āBASE gave me a much broader perspective on marketing and product management,ā said Delgado, who changed her degreeās emphasis to marketing after completing the class. āThe company where Iām interning does a lot in product and operations management, which I learned about in BASE.ā
Professor Laura Kornish, associate dean of undergraduate programs, taught Delgado in BASE, and said her story isnāt uncommon.
āBASE provides an experience for students to explore the ways different business disciplines intersect and overlap, while encouraging their professional development,ā Kornish said.
The idea of offering an undergraduate capstone experience level isnāt unique, but BASE takes it to a level few, if any, other business schools approach. The integrative approachāpulling in the entire business toolkit students learn early in their coreāis impressive, but so is the faculty commitment. Hundreds of sophomores take BASE simultaneously; the varied nature of the courseās themes means professors do some learning outside their areas of expertise.
āWeāre asking students to be fluent in all these business disciplinesāboth individually and in how they interact with each otherāand the faculty model that, too,ā Kornish said.
For a course that in the spring had 900 students, professors do a remarkable job personalizing the experience. Caitlin Thompson (Busā21), a financial advisor with Primerica, said Kornish offered āa great balance of constructive and positive feedback.ā
āWhen youāre presenting to the room, youāre sort of vulnerable, and she always offered you criticism that made you want to improve, and not make you scared to go up there again,ā said Thompson, who plans to return to Leeds for a masterās degree next fall.
To help keep students engaged, faculty work with brands local to the Colorado areaāincluding Justinās and Noodles & Co., both popular with studentsāon projects like recommending a new menu item, or determining how a product launch failed.
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A team at Justinās sat down with Leeds faculty to share what went wrong with its snack packs, which were discontinued a few years ago; āthe students then study the product development process and try to determine what the brand could do differently to avoid that situation in the future,ā Kornish said.
"BASE helped me challenge my assumptions about the best solution to a problem while also teaching me the confidence to advocate for my ideas."
- Caitlin Thompson (Busā21)
Financial Advisor | Primerica
Students repeatedly mentioned the project of creating a new menu item for Noodles as a valuable experience. āAt first, you think itās going to be simple to just propose a new menu item,ā Delgado said. āBut it really showed you
everything involved with product management, factoring in all the materials that needed to be allocated and the customer perspective.ā
Delgado enjoyed being able to bring her marketing expertise to the table while trusting her teammates in finance, operations and other specialties to bring those skills to the table. Those teamworks skills are crucial in BASE and beyond, Thompson said.
āI appreciated the diversity of thought you got when you approached a problem as a team,ā Thompson said. āBASE helped me challenge my assumptions about the best solution to a problem while also teaching me the confidence to advocate for my ideas.ā
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INTEGRATIVE
BASE is a capstone that pulls in all the disciplines students learn about early on at Leeds. Programs elsewhere are optional, or stay discipline-specific.
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LOCAL
The projects students work on are all scenarios from Colorado-based companies. "It was easier to make better judgement calls and allow your creativity to run with products you're more familiar with," Liv Delgado said.
IN DEMAND
"BASE was designed with feedback from employers on the most important things students need to know when they graduate," Laura Kornish said.
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PROFESSIONAL POLISH
The couse accelerates professional development by helping students better understandāand applyāthe discipline-specific knowledge they learn in core classes.
