ELON COLLEGE – A group of Elon College business students is learning entrepreneurial skills by tuning into jazz as part of a new approach to business education.
The 25 students are founders of Elon ImproVibes, a company that has worked with internationally recognized vibraphonist Jon Metzger to develop and record a CD of improvised jazz standards. The company is supported by the college’s Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, financed by the Chicago-based Coleman Foundation and supported by American Multimedia Inc., a local manufacturer of CDs.
The “Teach Me Tonight” CD is available at several area stores for $15 and also can be ordered through the group’s web site at www.elonimprovibes.com
“It’s hard to believe that we have produced such a professional product in a short amount of time,” says Jason Truesdale, a senior from Graham, who is the company’s CEO.
“The program has been a wonderful experience and the quality of our finished product definitely is something to be proud of,” says Natalie Komesz of Reading, Pa.
Metzger, who also is an instructor at the college, jumped at the chance to work with the students. “I thought this was a tremendous opportunity for real life experiences,” he says. “To build a successful professional music career one needs to be an entrepreneur. Teaching business survival skills in a program such as this is a necessity.”
The group hopes to sell 2,000 discs with profits earmarked for a future business venture.
The project’s director, Barth Strempek, assistant professor of business administration, who came up with the idea to do the CD, is pleased with how the business has developed. Students have had to grapple with real business issues from developing a business plan to deciding where to market the CD. To help them develop the necessary business savvy, they are taking a three-semester sequence of courses to introduce them to marketing, management principles and product merchandising.
“Many business programs seldom address some of the real challenges of the business environment – the risk, reward, initiative and responsibility,” Strempek says. “This program is allowing students to actually build a business.”
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