The Hawaii Catholic Schools Office has had a history of cooperation and collaboration with Chaminade University of Honolulu. The newest effort involves Chaminade’s Master of Business Administration instructors and students working with the Hawaii Catholic Schools Office and several schools on a “Chaminade/HCS Strategic Plan Implementation Review.”
It is hoped that this project will lead to suggestions on effective implementation of the HCS strategic plan, “System for Success.” The MBA students will be working this spring to review “System for Success,” providing input on how to be more effective in its implementation.
They will look at all aspects of the plan: alignment of the objectives with a marketing plan, anticipated deliverables, time frame, internal and external communications, etc. The MBA students may also be working with individual schools to develop marketing plans or help with specific components of their present marketing plans.
Scott Schroeder, lead instructor of the MBA Project Class, explained why this project is important to Chaminade.
“Chaminade University looks to prepare students for life, service, and successful careers,” he said. “Chaminade’s business programs seek to develop professionals who will positively impact the organizations they work in and the communities in which they live.
“Across the business programs, we emphasize learning for action, getting smarter in the classroom so that folks can do things with greater impact and effectiveness out in the world,” Schroeder said.
“And so in every program, we have students putting their learning to use through applied projects with real organizations. This kind of collaboration is important for us because it gives students the opportunity to experience the difference their expertise and efforts can make for their client organizations,” he said.
“At the MBA level, where students are typically working professionals, often in management and leadership positions already, client organizations are able to access the needed skills and experience of our MBA consulting teams, which they might not otherwise be able to afford,” he added. “The collaboration with Hawaii Catholic Schools is especially valuable to Chaminade because we are always looking for ways to serve and enhance the Catholic community in Hawaii.”
Chaminade projects like this have been fruitful in the past, Schroeder said.
“I’ve seen two general and some organization-specific benefits of this kind of project,” he said. “For one, these projects almost always help leaders of the client organization think more strategically about what they do and how they do it. They are better able to integrate their big picture view of their organization with the processes and actions that will help them to accomplish their goals.
“And second, during these projects, relationships are built that leave the organizations, both clients and Chaminade, feeling more resourceful at the end … with better access to knowledge, perspectives, and help for the work ahead.
“At an organization-specific level, past projects have helped clients determine the feasibility of a strategy or project, better understand and meet the needs of their customers and other stakeholders, better understand and use the things they are really good at (internal strengths) and deploy or show off their identity and purpose,” Schroeder said.
“We’ve also helped one organization close to closure survive and one start up. Most of our client organizations are non-profits, and they’ve come from areas including education, environmental protection, community service, historical preservation and others,” he said.
“Hawaii Catholic Schools is the third education organization our MBA students have worked with,” Schroeder said.
Mike Rockers, superintendent of Hawaii Catholic Schools said that he looks forward “to this analysis and the recommendations that will come from it.”
“We should have summary data from the MBA class by this March. I anticipate that Hawaii Catholic Schools will be better able to fulfill our mission of providing a quality 21st Century Catholic education to all our students,” he said.
“The MBA student consulting team will be able to integrate their expertise developed over their MBA program, and they will advance their consulting and client engagement skills as well,” Rockers said. “Of course, both Chaminade and the Hawaii Catholic Schools hope that the project significantly benefits the students of all Hawaii Catholic Schools … from the elementary through university level.”
