By Cadence Harvey, The Commercial Dispatch
February 12, 2025
Last spring, a group of Mississippi State University business students advised Taylor Logistics, a Louisville-based company, on ways to improve its operations.
The recommendations were so good that the company began implementing them right away.
This semester, students have a similar opportunity with Terra Delyssa, an olive oil company based in Tunisia, where the student team will travel as part of the experience.
In 2023-24, the College of Business offered 50 experiential learning opportunities in its curriculum, Dean Scott Grawe told the Rotary Club of Columbus Tuesday at Lion Hills Center.
Bringing these opportunities in the classroom allows students to glean real-world business experience before graduating, he said. The courses benefit all students, especially those who do not have the opportunity to get summer internships as many of their peers do.
“We build these courses around solving the problems for these companies,” Grawe said. “We can create a course and solve problems with businesses, as long as we create the learning objectives to go along with it... We really want the bulldog business experience to mean something. Our goal is to become a leader in the country when it comes to experiential learning.”
Grawe noted that over the last year, the college has seen new leadership across each of its departments. Among new faculty and staff members was Kim Jackson, hired to work with Career Services to ensure students are thinking about careers and job placements from the start of their freshman year.
“That’s been a big focus of mine,” Grawe said. “In the past, we’ve had too many students who come in as freshmen and sophomores and then juniors who get to the last semester of their senior year and start thinking, ‘Oh, I should start looking for a job.’ We’re starting that conversation from the time you step on campus as a freshman.”
Also among new leadership was Nick Pashos, named director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Outreach, also known as the E-Center, in October 2024, replacing Eric Hill. In January, former WCBI anchor Aundrea Self joined the college as director of outreach, filling a vacancy left by Jeffrey Rupp.
Both Hill and Rupp now work for Glo, a Starkville-based company that got its start in the E-Center.
Under Pashos’ leadership in the last four months, the E-Center has extended its outreach across campus to various different colleges.
“He is spending a lot of time engaging with all the colleges on campus,” Grawe said. “So spending time with College of Engineering, Arts and Sciences, Arts and Architecture, getting them plugged into the E-Center, understanding that they can turn their creative ideas into businesses.”
Grawe anticipates an increase in businesses emerging from Starkville as a result of Pashos’ efforts to engage various colleges across Mississippi State’s campus. Grawe also noted that Pashos’ leadership has led to an expansion in their pitch competitions that allow entrepreneurs from across the region to pitch their ideas to leaders of the E-Center for a chance to receive funding for their business.