Moraine Park Technical College encourages service learning experiences for students. The Marketing and Social Media Management program students attending the Advertising and Social Media Campaigns spring 2021 course were able to gain this experience working with local nonprofit partner organizations. Students attended this course entirely online and were divided into two groups. The 2 groups worked closely together acting as an advertising agency for the entire semester.

The newly created student agency sought out area nonprofit organizations, communicated with them to determine current and future needs, and developed an advertising/social media campaign plan for each organization. The two organizations selected were Kohler Credit Union, Kohler, WI and The Gathering Source, Juneau, WI.

“Students in both groups worked extremely well together all semester. They problem-solved and created ways to communicate and collaborate entirely online using Zoom, OneDrive, Canvas Group Chat, Canva and Google Docs, ” said Sarah Ninmer, Marketing and Social Media Management Instructor.

The students wrote reflections at the end of the semester documenting their experiences. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive and students truly appreciated the “real world, hands on” education and connections they made with the nonprofit organizations. Below are a few student quotes:

“I have worked within a team this entire semester for my Advertising and Social Media course at Moraine Park Technical College. We’ve completed several assignments such as a ‘Situational Analysis’ and a ‘Creative Plan’. After completing all of these tasks, we have officially created a comprehensive marketing guide for Kohler Credit Union in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Our team, “Connect Together” worked very hard to analyze, evaluate, design, and so much more for the company. We learned how to communicate effectively, work together, create documents, give professional feedback, etc. We have learned so much!”

Olivia Anderson, Marketing and Social Media Management Program Graduate

“This was essentially exactly what my future job could be, it taught me how hard it is to look at everything from every single angle to try and find the best way to do something. It also made me feel amazing to help this wonderful cause be even better and reach more people. I feel that we worked together amazingly to help The Gathering Source expand and open to new opportunities. I feel this project has helped everyone involved greatly. I learned a ton about helping businesses, how to work with a team and collaborate actively with others for more than just a paper. These are amazing skills to learn in order to work more effectively and positively in the future.”

Emily Poellinger, Marketing and Social Media Management Program Student

“Other than working on creating an advertising plan for a non-profit organization, during this semester I learned how to work in a team and compromise to come together with one campaign plan. It was interesting learning how to work in a group and coordinate a schedule that worked among all my team members. It was great experience to work with a team and learn how compromise all of our team member’s opinions into one joint plan that worked for our client. I think this semester was a great way to learn how to work as a team and gain skills for future career opportunities.”

Peyton Wolter, Marketing and Social Media Management Program Student

“Working on this social media marketing plan for Kohler Credit Union was a great chance to get some really good experience starting a plan from the beginning to end and also knowing what it is like to work on a project like this in a group. Since all of us are online we had to communicate through a group chat on Canvas but we really did not have any problems with that. There were a lot of different aspects of this assignment and even though we were in a group I was able to do a little bit of everything.”

Jake Antonioni, Marketing and Social Media Management Program Graduate

For more info on service learning opportunities at MPTC