New students at the Martin J. Whitman School of Management may think they are enrolled in Hogwarts as they participate in a new interactive competition to prepare them for the professional world.

Initiating Meaningful Partnerships and Responsibilities to Encourage Student Success, or IMPRESS, brings together technology and a sense of community to Whitman students by having them compete for the annual Goodman Cup, named after Kenneth Goodman, a program supporter. The winning team also gets a dinner with the Whitman dean.

This Harry Potter-like program’s goal is to unite Whitman students while also encouraging them to begin preparing for their futures, said Amanda Nicholson, the associate dean of Whitman.

“We wanted to build a community within Whitman, encourage students to build skills right away instead of waiting until they were seniors as well as make it fun. That is why we also wanted to have an incentive and some competition,” she said.

The program divides students into four houses named Adams, Marshall, Harrison and Waverly. Within each house there is a house master, a career counselor and a group of peer mentors.

Students are randomly assigned a house, regardless of major. This year’s first year students are the first participants in the program. The four house masters are Whitman SOM 122 professors, a required first-year introduction to business class.

With an incoming class of 500 students, Joseph Personte, the IMPRESS program manager, said the program was designed to build relationships between professors and students.

The new program uses extracurricular activities to encourage students to develop skills. Students are encouraged to participate in mock interviews, listen to guest speakers, attend career events and develop important business skills.

By taking part in these activities, students collect individual IMPRESS points that also go toward their house, creating competition not only among individuals but also among houses. Over the course of four years, a Whitman undergraduate can gain up to 1870 points. They will also be able to keep track of their score using a leaderboard on a smart-phone app.

Nicholson said the group of 40 individuals responsible for putting the program together will also take input from students as to what awards should be offered for reaching certain goals and what can be done to improve IMPRESS.

Sixty-two peer mentors, each taking on one to two groups of five-to-six students, also joined the initiative.

“I was drawn to the IMPRESS program as a peer mentor because I thought it was a great idea to motivate students to be active outside of the classroom,” said Sarah Whittaker, an undeclared sophomore in Whitman, via email. “We, peer mentors, were asked for our input when creating the program and it has been a great experience to see our ideas transform into reality.”

The program will also be beneficial to students looking for jobs and internships, Nicholson said. Students will also be able to put their IMPRESS points on their resumes so that their future employer will be able to see that they have more skills than their peers, she said.

Corporate partners with the school are informed of the program and have been provided with a moving scale, so that they are able to decipher the points’ meaning, said Lindsay Rapp, the assistant dean for undergraduate programs at Whitman.

With the increase of added work, students still understand that it’s beneficial for their future.

“As the job market gets more competitive, it is important for employers to see students engaged in more ways than academics,” said Hannah Epstein, an undeclared sophomore in Whitman. “We become more than just a GPA.”

Published on September 17, 2014 at 12:01 am

Contact Ali: Ali Linan