When Purdue sophomores Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer aren’t helping the Boilermakers stay on top of the national basketball rankings (currently 29-4), they and their classmates are learning about what organizational leadership and project management looks like in the real world.
Purdue’s School of Technology x Netfor
Dr. Chris Bittinger, a clinical assistant professor in Purdue’s School of Technology, brings a quarter-century of corporate coaching and training to his project management students. Early in his career, Dr. Bittinger lent his expertise to Netfor’s founders, and when he wanted his class to apply their newly acquired skills to a real company, he reached out to Jeff Medley.
Project manager Heather Nash immediately embraced the opportunity. The veteran project manager is a Purdue School of Technology alum who tutored several student-athletes during her undergraduate days.
Purdue’s project management class seems to attract more than its share of athletes, and Heather says the reason is obvious. “When companies want a project manager, they need someone who can manage their time, prioritize, and juggle. That’s what life as a student-athlete is all about. Beyond what happens on the court, their travel schedule is demanding, and yet they still have to maintain their GPA,” she notes. “College is tough enough when you’re 20 years old. Not only do they have to work as hard as anyone else, but they have to manage what’s essentially an extremely demanding second job.”
What Are These Boilermakers Doing?
Students in the class are being tasked with real work from Netfor’s business operations. “They’re diving right in and using the project management methodology they’ve been learning,” explains Heather. “Their first objective is proposing new key performance indicators for each of Netfor’s business services. They’re going through the process of learning our culture, doing research, and finding industry standards. They’ll propose KPIs for each service and green, yellow, and red thresholds for each. It’s been fun, and they’ve been asking great questions.”
Heather has also used the interaction to discuss career paths and the importance of finding satisfying work. “Sometimes it’s not a straight line,” she noted. “I’d be a veterinarian today if I wound up doing what brought me to Purdue.”
Off-the-court Performance:
A few students are emerging as candidates with serious potential for internships, Heather adds, and she believes both sides will benefit. “As we explore areas like machine learning, we need to learn more about using project management to control product development and application releases. The students are fresh in their learning and are teaching me things while they’re learning more about Netfor.” So, in between racking up points for the Boilers, it looks like Fletcher, Braden, and their classmates will put up some pointers to keep Netfor moving down the road of continual service improvement.
