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A group of ��ɫ����TV University business students capped off their senior year with a learning experience that helped make one corner of the world better.

“We are always looking for those win-win-win projects, where the client wins, the University wins, and the students win,” said Jaume Franquesa, Ph.D., associate professor of management, and advisor for the senior capstone project for management majors in the Dicke College of Business Administration. Seniors in the College need to complete a capstone project as part of the curriculum.

This year, nine students organized in two teams worked with a collective of coffee producers in Honduras to develop better ways to market their coffee within their own country. The collaboration was virtual so students, farmers, government coffee experts, and the others involved met and brainstormed ideas online.

The ONU team worked with Global Brigades, an organization dedicated to holistic development in developing countries. In addition to working on infrastructure and health, the organization focuses on economic development, particularly in rural areas.

This year was the third year ONU management students have worked with Global Brigades, Franquesa added. Previous capstones have helped tilapia farmers in Panama find markets for their excess production, and helped other small coffee producing collaboratives develop ways to improve their processing and expand their markets.

This year’s capstone was difficult, not just because it had to be done remotely, but because students had to overcome cultural and language barriers and learn the technical side of growing and producing coffee, according to Franquesa. Their clients, in turn, had the opportunity to learn more about marketing and business strategies.

Beyond the challenges of doing market research on a developing country, “there are so many intricacies with language and culture that the only way we could do it was if the client was going to be very involved,” said Franquesa. He told the liaison in Honduras: “We’re going to ask you for information and you have to be our legs and boots on the ground.” She was more than willing to do that, he added.

“Communication across cultures can be difficult, especially if you haven’t done it before,” said senior Grace Wilson, who worked on the capstone team. “We had to adapt pretty quickly, and had to do a lot of research into what was more customary for businesses in Honduras.”

The students also learned about the technical challenges of working with colleagues in a developing country. Partners in Honduras transported computers and set up screens in remote areas for meetings. Sometimes colleagues couldn’t join meetings because the power was cut off or they had to travel to access WiFi.

“We’re used to having constant power or being able to access WiFi most of the time,” said senior Megan Dearth.

The students appreciated the support of translators and Franquesa, who speaks Spanish. Learning to work in a team and to work remotely was also valuable, according to the students.

“I think it’s beneficial for us to have that adaptability of working in different situations especially in today’s world where so much work is hybrid or remote,” said Veronica Phillips, a senior who took part in the fall project. It was good, she said, to discover that you can build relationships with people you may never see in person. In addition, “it’s really helpful to gain some real-world experience working with a client.”

All the students agreed learning to work in an increasingly interconnected global economy strengthened their knowledge base. At times, they had to adjust their ideas to make business concepts more understandable to their clients or collaborate with them to figure out which marketing tools were actually workable with their resources.

The project aligns with the College of Business’s mission of engaging students in high-impact learning experiences and developing professional leaders with an analytical, ethical and global mindset, Franquesa said. “I think for students today this is part and parcel of being in business.”

The students said their final presentation was well received, and are pleased many of their ideas may be used further. A representative from the Honduran Institute of Coffee was part of the project so some of the ideas the students developed may help other cooperatives, according to Franquesa.

“I think it’s cool that our project may be shared beyond just our client,” said Phillips.

“They did a terrific job,” said Franquesa. “The clients were very impressed and they told us they were going to adopt the recommendations.”