2020-21 Projects

Marketing, Photography, Graphic Design

St. Benedict’s Abbey has thousands of pieces of art, in several different medium forms, within its inventory.  These include several international pieces.   The Abbey would love to have a catalog established of the art, using high-resolution images.  From those images, a reference catalog of some sort could be put together and the items possibly grouped into commonalities – i.e., Challis’s, photography taken by monks, statuary, etc.  The images could be used to create “coffee table type” books that could be set up in series format and simply titled “Dedicated to the Art of the Abbey,” or along those lines.  The books could be produced and sold through the Abbey’s website/gift shop, thus generating income for the monks, and acknowledging the contributions of the SIBC.

The Abbey also has an Art Gallery at the Abbey and has held art shows that have been open to the public.  Cataloging the art would provide the monks the opportunity to determine new ways to display and rotate the art shown in the gallery.

The Abbey is open to recommendations or enhancements that SIBC students may have in mind for the project.

Marketing

The Riverwood Winery team conducted research on how to develop clothing, merchandise, and logo items. Researched and worked on an online shop in order to sell these items and make the consumer shopping experience more enjoyable. And lastly, researched and found ways to make it easier for consumers to purchase wine online.

International Business

Students expanded their knowledge while networking with alumni and students in the other councils. At this event: One alumni representative from each school shared a little about his/her company/industry and how it has been impacted by/responded to COVID-19. Presentations from student teams about how COVID-19 has forced many industries to rapidly adapt to changing conditions, some of which may become the new normal in a post-COVID-19 world. Choose one of the following industries (Real Estate, Healthcare, or Travel) and outline: The current state of the industry, Projections for the future state of industry post COVID-19, Shortlist of which companies (or company archetype) are likely to thrive in a post-COVID-19 environment and why. Opportunities for students to enter virtual breakout rooms to speak with the three alumni representatives

Marketing

The Marketing Team meets regularly throughout the year to address the Benedictine College Student International Business Council's marketing needs. We use various applications to develop marketing materials for the council. These include fliers, logos, business cards, and more. The Marketing Team also manages all social media platforms as well as updates the council’s webpage.

Final Presentation

Alumni Connections, Networking

Students are setting up an alumni event to provide networking opportunities for SIBC students.

Final Presentation

Mass Communications and General Business

Students create YouTube videos and website content about business professionalism. Topics include resume writing, cover letters, interviewing, networking, dinner etiquette, LinkedIn, etc. This involves interviewing professors, people in the Career Services Department, professionals in the community, and alumni.

Final Presentation

Finance

This will be a virtual presentation to SIBC’s benefactors, alumni, and representatives from Notre Dame and the University of San Diego. Students are researching the recent attempts by Reddit user groups to “short squeeze” the short-sellers of Game Stop (including large hedge funds) which has highlighted both how the stock market works and how it doesn’t work. Students are choosing a position and arguing why they believe this particular issue illustrates their position. They are demonstrating where/how the market works and where/how it doesn’t work even within the same example. Students are including a discussion about the role of Robinhood and its policies, Reddit users, college students, hedge fund managers, and the New York Stock Exchange. They are also including policy recommendations for improvements, where appropriate.

Final Presentation

International Business and Marketing

Our group studied the Marketing Strategy of St. Andrews and worked with a clerk for the town in order to create a Marketing Plan tailored toward the North Eastern United States.  Through this work we were able to understand the dynamic of the town and how their business practices directly relate toward the tourism industry.

Final Presentation

International Business, Management, and Marketing

This fascinating project began by the study of the field of Marine Science and how information between sources is conveyed.  We located several important Trade Shows who hosted our target companies. From there our group identified the symbiotic companies and compiled them into a list for Huntsman.

Final Presentation

Accounting

The Accounting Team is a team that meets periodically throughout the year to address SIBC’s financial needs. The Accounting Team assures that SIBC is demonstrating effective stewardship of our donor’s generous gift. We not only follow generally accepted business practices for overseeing expenditures but also initiate good systems for our members to follow internally. Different needs addressed by the Accounting Team including coding transactions, booking flights and hotels for project needs, billings, and reimbursements, predicting future months’ spending to increase credit limit per month, and approving spending budgets for project use.

Final Presentation

Mass Communications

The goal of this project is for SIBC to connect with alumni, business owners, travel enthusiasts, entrepreneurs, and other Benedictine students who may not necessarily be in SIBC. Creating a podcast would enable our team and other students and faculty to learn and connect through audio that is accessible to anyone at any time. Students involved with this project will be able to practice different skills like communication, both verbal and written, collecting research on whom we should interview, and then learning how to research and form excellent interview questions.

Final Presentation

Entrepreneurship

Our goal is to build an informative website 

in order to expand the business and ease of 

use in running Weseloh Tree Service 

Final Presentation

Social Entrepreneurship

Through the process of fundraising, we usually have the opportunity to send water filters to those in need in third world countries. These water filters have provided clean water for families in Honduras and for victims of Hurricane Maria.

Final Presentation

Social Entrepreneurship

This project aims to obtain crosses, rosaries, and iconography from the Holy Land (Israel), to market to alumni parents and students alike.

Final Presentation

Finance

After learning that Atchison, Kansas is the poorest county in all of Kansas, SIBC decided that they wanted to do something about this. We are looking to partner with the City of Atchison and/or local schools to bring a Financial Literacy program into the city. We hope to be able to teach a class to adults in Atchison in both the fall and spring to cover the basic understanding of how to properly budget, save, and spend their money. We would be able to answer the questions they have regarding their finances. We hope to be able to address topics that many adults are afraid to ask because they believe that they should already know the answer. We also hope to be able to work with some of the schools in Atchison to be able to teach a more basic class for the students on how to start saving and spending their money wisely.

Accounting

"Make a real impact in the lives of low-to-moderate income individuals in northeast Kansas by helping with the IRS’ VITA Program. Volunteers make a weekly commitment of 2-3 hours from February 8 through April 9 to help in one or more of the following ways:

 • Meet briefly with clients to collect the required paperwork

 • Prepare tax returns

 • Meet briefly with clients to go over completed tax returns"

Final Presentation

Accounting

This project is designed for accounting and finance students to actively participate in field research and enhance their overall understanding of accounting, network with accounting firms, and aid MarksNelson. This project enables SIBC members and accounting students with real-world experience by researching the effect of IT and AI on the future of accounting services, specialty services, tax services, and audit services.

Final Presentation

Entrepreneurship

Students are; researching best practices vs. reality in diesel management in SMBs and Fortune 500 companies in the USA, looking at content creation for marketing Fuelitics, and examining the legal regulatory framework of private and public refueling sites.

Final Presentation

Market Research Project

The market research will likely involve the sale of scaffolding in the USA.

Final Presentation

General Business

We are hosting a meeting with the deputy Mayor, Brad Henderson the first week of class to choose a topic of research/work for the town council.

Final Presentation

Marketing

Bonavista Living is interested in finding an affordable way to better market its real estate developments to potential American buyers - Their goal is simply to reach a much wider USA audience with their available residencial heritage real estate and new construction. They would like to be seen as a viable option for American summer home buyers looking to Atlantic Canada.

Final Presentation