Students can work towards real world experience by working in small groups with other students, faculty and the community while still gaining college credits and possibly even a scholarship.
Building Better Communities Fellows is an immersive learning program that gives students and faculty the opportunity to address problems and create solutions for businesses in the community.
This is the third year out of five that BBC has been funded partially by the Lilly Foundation. Since the first year, the number of projects has doubled and the numbers of students involved has tripled.
Kelli Huth, director of BBC Fellows program, said BBC depends entirely on the requests from the community.
"We get a lot of inquiries from the community, so we try to make that match between the community and the faculty who can carry out those projects," she said. "We then try to find students who can fill that team."
Participants earn college credits. They also have the opportunity to attend free professional development training. Another benefit is one student from each team receives a $1,000 scholarship each semester.
BBC Fellow teams are typically made up of anywhere from 10 to 30 students. Some of the projects come with a class to work on them while others are not connected to a class.
BBC students essentially team up to improve community businesses. BBC participants are currently doing nine projects, ranging from criminal justice to health studies to emerging media.
One current BBC project is in part with Muncie Police Department. Their goal is to find how MPD's resources measure up in the means of how many resources they need verses how many resources they have when it comes to emergency phone calls. Students are studying data to recognize crime patterns.
In another project, BBC students are working in cooperation with Fort Wayne's Parkview Hospital to create classroom curriculums about healthy eating and physical activity. The curriculums will be designed for third and fourth graders.
Sometime in the next few weeks, summer BBC projects will be on the website for students to apply for. One of the programs is working with and creating global positioning system based scavenger hunt for an elementary-aged summer camp.
To apply, visit bsu.edu/About/AdministrativeOffices/BBC/Fellows and click under the tab "Student Opportunities."
Jerome McKean, associate professor of criminal justice and criminology and reoccurring BBC team leader, said he thinks the BBC Fellows program is a great opportunity for students, but it takes a lot of hard work.
"As to who should get involved, the thing is they have to have flexible schedules," he said. "People who are working 40 hours a week and going to school full time probably aren't a good candidate."
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