Students from the Naveen Jindal School of Management recently participated in a meal-packing event that will feed nearly 23,000 people in war-ravaged Ukraine.
The event, held Oct. 31 in the Executive Dining Room at the Jindal School, was organized by students from the Social Impact Marketing (MKT4360) course and Numana, an international hunger-relief nonprofit organization based in El Dorado, Kan. Various staff members from the Jindal School, including Brandon Davidson, manager of JSOM Technology and Facilities Services, also assisted with the event. The students recruited 120 volunteers looking to earn hours toward fulfilling the Jindal School’s 100-hour community-service requirement under the UTDserv initiative.
“It was very cohesive,” said Andi Copeland, event manager for Numana. “It was phenomenal working with all the students and everyone there. It went together so great and so cohesively. It was just amazing.”
Sreshta Vanaparthy, a senior Information Technology and Systems major at the Jindal School, and Taylor Vaughan, a senior Marketing major, were two of the 30 student organizers who recruited the other student volunteers for the event. Vaughan said that she was able to utilize several marketing-specific skills during this project.
“One of the things that really helped me from my experience in marketing was helping to create the flyer to send out to the students and just figuring out what needs to be put on it — the design and look and feel of everything,” Vaughan said. “My major really helped with that.”
Vaughan said the project also gave her an opportunity to utilize her strategic marketing knowledge.
“I’ve always been interested in learning about consumer behavior and figuring out how to tailor our strategies towards that,” she said. “That’s something that’s part of marketing and so I got to figure out what the students are interested in and what they want out of a potential employer and how our event sponsors can fill those needs.”
Before managing this event, Copeland had not heard about The University of Texas at Dallas or the Jindal School.
“I was so happy to learn about it and to be able to go there because it’s a phenomenal campus,” she said. “I really feel like your school is a great resource for the community. And I was just like, man, how have I not known about this before?”
Vaughan said that when 120 people come together to volunteer for a community-service event such as this one, it can add up to something that can benefit the larger community.
“I think that’s what happened here,” she said. I think just the little bit of time that was sacrificed by each individual really added up to something that will make a huge impact. It does make a big difference.”
When Vanaparthy was asked what she would tell another Jindal School student who was feeling overwhelmed about having to fulfill 100 hours of community service to graduate, she said she would tell them to be gung-ho about it and utilize their networks.
“The Comet Cupboard always needs volunteers,” she said. “Or plan ahead and take this marketing class. It probably was one of the best experiences I’ve had at UTD in this year and a half I’ve been here.”
Dr. Julie Haworth, an assistant professor of instruction at the Jindal School and BS Marketing director, said the event was part of the Jindal School’s UTDserv community-engagement initiative that connects student volunteers with nonprofit organizations.
“Ours is the first program to do UTDserv even before it was UTDserv,” she said.
Haworth said that the students used the entire UTDserv platform, a project management process that includes putting together a team, a team charter, a project scope document and a project plan and then ultimately presenting a final report.
“For the students to not only meet their goal of packing 23,000 meals but exceed it is admirable,” she said. “It speaks to their dedication and enthusiasm. JSOM students never fail to surprise me with just how amazing they are.”
