Champlain Exchange: Real-World Experience, Real Business Solutions

A few months before any given semester starts, Angela Koukoulas, Champlain’s Hula liaison and Innovation Hub Project Manager, starts her outreach campaign, where she searches for clients who might benefit from working with a class. Koukoulas hosts events at Hula, where business owners and representatives come to learn about the Champlain Exchange. They discuss the different classes that have openings and what the outcomes of the partnerships may look like.

“We want students to have client-facing experiences as soon as possible,” says Koukoulas. She identifies who is eligible, who would work well with which classes, and sends out options to different professors. To her, working with students is like a gold mine. New business owners can get assistance with things like marketing, communications, business research, and more.

Word spreads quickly about how helpful these connections can be. Azilee Curl, founder of FullCore, said, “I remember hearing from somebody who had done this partnership in a previous semester, and that they walked away with a clear and actionable plan for next steps in their marketing.”

So when Koukoulas approached Curl with an opportunity to get assistance from inside the classroom, she agreed.

According to Curl, it’s not uncommon for entrepreneurs at her stage to struggle with promotion and marketing. Through the Champlain Exchange, she was able to open doors to marketing that she believes she couldn’t have opened on her own. While she wasn’t sure what to expect from entrusting her business to a class of college students, she was excited to get to work with them — and they blew her out of the water.

“It’s a course. I’ve been in college courses before,” Curl commented. “You never know if students are going to be super into it or just sitting through it, because they have to be. These students were in it. They actually took the time to understand me, my story, and my business.”

First, Curl introduced the class to her business, and then it was time for them to get to work conducting their own individual research and crafting a marketing plan. “A number of weeks later, we had our first check-in, and they were saying to me, ‘We know in your business, your core value is really authentically connecting with other people.’ To hear that spit back at me in a way that was just so spot on. I was like, wow, these students get it.”

Silver’s class helped identify and narrow down her target audiences. They utilized tactics like advertising in relevant local businesses like Align Cycling, a Williston-based cycling studio that incorporates “mindfulness and open-heartedness with strengthening and empowering functional fitness,” according to its website.

They also provided new language for Curl to use when describing the business and training on how to produce strategic, engaging social media content that’s appropriate for the business. “I can work within those guidelines that they helped build for me. It really helped me put myself out there with more confidence. I feel so much better than just winging it,” she said.

“The clients are usually really surprised by how engaged the students are. They’re not shy; they’re speaking up and asking questions. They’re giving examples from their life about how a product or service might apply to them. Students become more energized and engaged when they’re working on something that’s real and impacting their community,” said Koukoulas.