MBA students with Make-A-Wish recipient
Brandon Thomas & his mother, Eileen Sutton (lower right)

Twelve UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School students raised more than $33,500 in less than two days as part of an exercise designed to build their leadership skills. The money will fund a trip to Walt Disney World for six children with life-threatening medical conditions through the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The students raised the money during the Make-A-Wish Challenge, part of a new Leadership Immersion course that tests and builds leadership skills.

The Leadership Immersion is unique among top business schools. Students spend seven weeks, an entire quarter of their second year as MBAs, working solely on their leadership skills. The Immersion uses a series of hands-on experiences to test and strengthen students’ abilities as leaders. Students get a lot of individual feedback and coaching during the Immersion, just as they do in other courses and activities of the School’s leadership development program.

The challenge gave each of three teams of students just 48 hours to raise $6,500, the sum needed to grant the wish of one child. Nine Kenan-Flagler undergraduate students helped with the task.

In less than 48 hours, the students raised not $6,500 but $33,500 for the Eastern North Carolina Make-A-Wish chapter. This was enough for not one, but six children to have their dreams come true at Walt Disney World.

Among other things, teams held a raffle for items signed by UNC Chapel Hill sports luminaries Coach Dean Smith and Coach Roy Williams, set up a social networking campaign on Facebook, and tapped into alumni contacts.

The challenge required students to design a strategy, motivate a team under pressure and use their personal and professional networks, said Adam Grant, the UNC Kenan-Flagler professor who designed the challenge.

"The Leadership Immersion course is a revolutionary opportunity for MBA students," he said. "The Make-A-Wish Challenge was an experience that tested students’ knowledge and skills while giving back to the community."

The Immersion also includes computer simulations. These test students’ abilities to build a strategy and to lead change in an organization. Next, students in the course will go to Atlanta to meet with executives and to take part in an Outward Bound experience focused on team-building skills and problem solving.

Mindy Storrie, director of leadership development at UNC Kenan-Flagler, added that the Leadership Immersion course is a unique opportunity for students.

"The chance to apply skills, learn through hands-on experience, get individualized feedback, reflect on their performance and set new goals will continue throughout the Immersion," she said.