Pacific students learn and give back with inaugural 5k Retro Run

It's not often that college students are able to put their coursework to use in a philanthropic way, but for Engineering Management students, that opportunity has been made possible in the form of a 5K run. EMGT 170 students were responsible for planning and organizing the "5K Retro Run" for the charity of their choice, American Cancer Society, as part of their curriculum to help foster skills like team-building, communication, leadership, decision making, and project management. All while providing exposure to community service.  Throughout this project, students engaged in scheduling, financial evaluation, benefit cost analysis, resource allocation, time/cost tradeoffs, progress monitoring and risk assessment. 

"This project goes beyond the classroom and into real implementation. It gave students a great opportunity to get ready for their future job and provide them a broader education than just a course project."

says Professor Mehdi Khazaeli who runs this course as part of the Engineering Management program at Pacific. Students were able to overcome obstacles and step out of their comfort zone. As a result of their hard work, more than 100 participants attended and more than $1,200 was raised to be donated to ACS. Students learned the value of a committed team and gained confidence to lead and take risks, realizing that nothing worthwhile comes easily.

Engineering Management students Kirstin Kita and Ashley Watanabe were the project managers for this project and were responsible for managing Logistics, Marketing, Pre/post entertainment, Fundraising and Registration. "I am so amazed and proud of my team for being able to plan and host this event in a short amount of time. 10 weeks is not a long time to put something like this together." Kirstin said.  "Being very results oriented, one thing I enjoyed about this project is seeing how tasks that may seem so small can be put together to create something much bigger."