January 2017 | Business View Magazine

104 105 BEREA, OHIO mance coatings, and specialty chemicals). We’re finding some pretty significant, low-cost and no-cost opportunities for them to get their waste out of the waste stream. One example is that their largest waste product is wooden pallets. Theyhave tons of thesewooden pallets stacked behind their facilityandwould pay someone to haul themaway. Well,it wasn’t hard for us to identifya local company that would take themaway for free or at very little cost. That company re-purposes these pallets into mulch. So,we’re closing the loop there.” “Andwhenmy student consultants find those opportunities,it’s pretty rewarding for them,”he adds. “We’ve always prided ourself on trying to be practical and applied. So,we’re always looking for programs likeMatt’s,where our students can roll up their sleeves and learnwhat it’s really like to produce results that are meaningful for business.” Tim Marshall is the Director of the Digital Marketing Clinic, which is part of the School of Business at Baldwin Wallace University. “We have a similar arrangement with the City of Berea through a grant program with Matt and his team,” he says. “Businesses that are based within Berea can apply for a reimbursement grant through Matt’s office that would pay for the cost of our Digital Marketing Clinic services. “The Clinic is an experiential learning pro- gram that has a two-pronged mission. We provide additional experiential and hands-on learning opportunities for our business stu- dents so they can stand out in the job market, and the second part of our mission is to help local business thrive in the marketplace. We do that by matching teams of very skilled mar- keting majors, public relations majors, graphic design majors, with local businesses who, over the course of the semester, receive marketing communications support, as well as actionable, comprehensive, digital marketing communi- cations strategy that can help a local business or organization tackle some of its real-world business objectives.” “These are predominantly small and mid-size businesses, many of which are private,” says Krueger. “And the expertise that both of our programs bring to the table often flies under the radar screen for small and mid-size busi- nesses; they don’t have enough staff on hand to tackle digital marketing, for instance, or even to think about sustainability. So, it’s a good way for us to provide a service that, otherwise, they just wouldn’t be able to afford, or don’t have the time and talent to think about.” “And it’s a great opportunity to give our stu- dents more experience,” Marshall adds. “But we think it goes a little bit deeper than just an out-of-the-classroom experience and simply offering a resource of the University’s residents. We’re really building community, here. Students get a connection to the broader, off-campus community that they wouldn’t have had. We can talk about sustainability management or digital marketing in class all day long, but to give students the opportunity to interact with external stakeholders is rare. You can’t teach that. It really Berea’s fame as the “Grindstone Capital of theWorld” ended in the early 1940s, but today, Berea is moving forward to revitalize its economic future.