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Poole College Consortium is Recruiting NC State Grad Students for Consumer Innovation Practicum

NC State graduate students who want hands-on experience working with international industry leaders and top academic researchers to co-develop and execute innovative, consumer-centric marketing initiatives are invited to apply for acceptance to the new Consumer Innovation Practicum (CIP) in the Jenkins MBA curriculum at NC State’s Poole College of Management.

The CIP is affiliated with the Consumer Innovation Consortium (CIC), an interdisciplinary research consortium that facilitates, designs and enacts academic-corporate partnerships in developing new approaches to marketing.

“Our goal for the course is to have students working in collaborative research teams representing a variety of disciplinary perspectives and approaches from across the NC State campus, particularly in the areas of advanced analytics, rhetoric, the social sciences, and design,” said Dr. Stacy Wood, Langdon Distinguished Professor of Marketing and executive director of the Consumer Innovation Consortium (CIC) in Poole College.

There are 16 students in the first offering of the course, under way this spring, working on projects that explore the industry applications of aspects of anthropology, cultural studies, rhetorical analysis, history, and design.

“The disciplinary silos in which traditional academic work has taken place are no longer authentic vehicles for understanding the complicated, networked world in which we live and work,” said Dr. Colbey Reid, director of the CIC. “We’re seeking talented degree candidates from across campus that can deliver creativity, insight, and specialized knowledge beyond the borders of their disciplines and the university,” she said.

The fall 2013 research teams will be collaborating on projects with the CIC’s research partners, which currently include AmerisourceBergen, Bayer CropSciences, Burt’s Bees, and Cotton Incorporated.

Students must be accepted to the practicum via an application process in order to enroll. Practicum students must also have taken or be co-enrolled in MBA 590 – Consumer Behavior – and are invited to participate in the practicum as many times as they desire and are accepted to it. “Our vision is to offer select NC State graduate students long-term opportunities for experiencing close faculty mentoring, developing industry contacts, and exploring and perhaps reshaping the perimeters of areas to which their skills and knowledge can be applied,” Reid said.

The CIC is also currently recruiting Jenkins MBA students for the CIC Marketing Fellowship. For details about the fellowship and the CIC Practicum Course, contact Dr. Colbey Reid by email or by phone at 919.513.7491.