Teaming environmental biology and business administration seniors on “green” enterprise plans at Saint Michael’s College, Vermont

Business administration and biology seniors at Saint Michael’s College, Colchester, VT, worked together to develop environmentally oriented business plans as part of collaborating capstone seminars for their majors. Students prepared start-up business proposals for the Enterprise Plan Competition, a business plan contest at Saint Michael’s College founded and funded by alumni. In this collaboration, biology students taught concepts from environmental science and presented information on environmental problems to the business seniors; business seniors taught the biology seniors about the fundamental areas of business and economics. After a process of ideation, students formed mixed teams consisting of biologists and business students. The teams generated complete business plans. Biology students wrote literature review papers on the science and technology related to their groups’ plans. Outcomes of the work included one team winning the Enterprise Plan Competition, with a plan for an industrial composting facility, and others being selected for the finals. More importantly, most students enrolled in both classes reported that they gained confidence in their knowledge and skills related to their major field of study from participating in the collaboration.