University of Richmond’s Spider Business Hub at the Robins School of Business

Project-based learning and community engagement are not new to higher education, but a business school providing a coordinated and welcoming hub for community partners is. Through the Spider Business Hub, the University of Richmond (UR) Robins School of Business has formalized and developed long-term partnerships that benefit the community. The initiative addresses equity issues in the internship world and provides students with real-world experience without the need for networking or engaging in unpaid work.

Call to Action

Many organizations and entrepreneurs in UR’s local community approached its professors with a desire to collaborate with students. While many courses already engaged in project-based learning with community partners in a piecemeal manner, there was no central “hub” where community partners would be welcomed and could have their projects scoped.

The school created the Spider Business Hub to meet both community and student needs. Some students don’t have the opportunity to participate in traditional summer internships for various reasons, such as visiting family internationally and needing to work paid summer jobs. In response, the hub provides students with tailored learning experiences while building more intentional relationships in the local community.

The Spider Business Hub gives students resume-building experience during the academic year while also providing academic credit. Students apply the concepts they have learned in their business coursework to real organizational challenges. They also build professional communication skills through their role as a consultant to the community partner they work with.

Clients partner with skilled business students to receive advice free of charge. Because students are guided by UR professors, clients also benefit from deep expertise in the relevant subject area. Dean-charged task force recommendations also enhance the focus on the Spider Business Hub to create a welcoming culture that values inclusion in the Robins School of Business.

Innovation Description

Community partners apply to work with students through the Spider Business Hub. The faculty director scopes and vets projects before including them in courses that have learning objectives aligned with client needs. For example, data analytics and data science students worked with a local business that provides children’s music lessons. They constructed a dashboard to map customer data, make predictions, and plan for future business.

In the Principles of Marketing course, students developed strategic recommendations for financial institution Capital One to build programs and messaging that attracted the target 18-to-24-year-old consumer segment. In the school’s consulting course, which is specific to serving partners that need marketing assistance, students took on 33 projects during the 2023–24 academic year. The community partners involved included a body care brand for cancer patients, a book author, and a foster care support company.

The Spider Business Hub works with both for-profit businesses and nonprofit organizations. The school prioritizes small businesses owned by women and people from underrepresented groups in the local community, but it also works with large brands like Corona, Hamilton Beach, and The Hershey Company. The hub has built valuable partnerships with local organizations, such as the Metropolitan Business League and the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, to reach a broad client base.

The Robins School of Business endeavors for all students to engage in a project-based learning experience with a community partner before graduation.

Innovation Impact

Since its inception in the 2020–21 academic year, the Spider Business Hub’s output has grown from seven to 41 projects per year. In the initiative’s first year, 16 students participated, compared to 229 students in the 2023–24 academic year. The school anticipates approximately 400 students working on 50 client projects in the 2024–25 academic year.

Many of the community partners are repeat customers who work with students in one discipline, such as organizational behavior, and later with students in a different discipline, like marketing. From the most recent client cohort in 2023–24, the hub’s satisfaction rating was 4.87 out of 5 points. Student satisfaction surveys suggest they are more confident with client communications and more prepared for jobs and internships after completing a project.

In tandem with the Spider Business Hub, the recently created Faculty Hub Fellowship program acknowledges faculty champions of client-based projects and community-engaged learning. Through this initiative, the school plans to gather data about students’ experiences, particularly how integrating project and community work impacts learning in a variety of courses.

Student work has directly affected partner businesses. For example, a local pizza shop wondered if integrating DoorDash, Grubhub, and other app-based food delivery services would benefit the business despite fees. A data analytics student provided a detailed analysis of various outcomes, allowing the company to confidently attract new customers via the most financially optimal food delivery app.

A nonprofit organization leader said of her search engine optimization project, “Participating in this project has been a great asset to my organization. The students that were assigned to my project were very knowledgeable and have contributed greatly to the goals of my organization.”

Reference Links

• “Spider Business Hub,” UR Robins School of Business website