Connect with MihayloAward-winning Professor Tom Boyd: His Students Hit the
Streets of East L.A. to do Research for Nike
Over several years, Tom Boyd, professor of marketing, has cultivated relationships with organizations outside the university – including liaisons with former students who are now in leadership positions – to create consulting projects for his classes.
“The best place to do this is in my sports marketing course where students have performed consulting projects for Nike, Cal State Fullerton athletics, the Anaheim Ducks and the Los Angeles Angels,” says Boyd. “Most recently, we have been doing work for the Auto Club Speedway, including work on race day for NASCAR. This gives the students a chance to see how marketing works at an event as well as to do some basic research and consulting.”
The students’ project for Nike included ways to help the company connect to Latino markets in East Los Angeles. “We sent the students to East L.A. to do research, and one of their recommendations – to create basketball courts and special events around the courts – was used by Nike for their community outreach strategy,” says Boyd.
This consistent and successful effort to expand the classroom beyond the campus earned Boyd Mihaylo College’s 2009 Executive Council Outstanding Faculty Award, which is presented by a group of 74 business leaders that serve and support the college. The annual award honors a faculty member who demonstrates outstanding teaching, research and professional activities, and service along with enhancing the prestige of Mihaylo College.
One of the Executive Council members on the award’s selection committee is Mihaylo alumnus Steve Flynn ’88, managing director and head of the office of Marsh Risk & Insurance Services in Newport Beach. In selecting Boyd for the award, according to Flynn, it underscores the Mihaylo faculty’s commitment to a real-world approach in teaching. “It links the students to the outside world, but it also links the business community to the school,” says Flynn. “So there is a direct benefit to the employer. It’s also a better education for the students – it’s not clinical and strictly out of a textbook.”
Produced by the Mihaylo College of Business and Economics at California State University, Fullerton.
Contact the web administrator for comments or problems with the website.
All rights reserved. Copyright 2009.