STAR students work with North Carolina nonprofits

A long-running UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School program to help businesses now aids nonprofits through the School’s newest academic program, the Master of Science in Management (MSM).

For 20-plus years, STAR, which stands for Student Teams Achieving Results program, has combined real-world consulting experience and course credit, partnering teams of business students with organizations worldwide to solve business challenges.

This spring, the first cohort of the 10-month MSM program, which launched in August 2025, also participated — and gave back to the state of North Carolina.

STAR is a mandatory component of the MSM program, designed for those just beginning their careers. Each MSM STAR project is focused on problem-solving specifically for nonprofits, and all eight of this year’s partnerships were in North Carolina.

Karin Cochran (MBA ’99), STAR’s executive director and consulting faculty, says nonprofits were part of the program’s portfolio when it first started.

“In the early days of STAR, we worked with organizations like North Carolina’s Sweetpotato Commission and Christmas Tree Association,” she says. “So in a way, we’re getting back to our roots.”

Inspired by Chancellor Lee H. Roberts’ outreach in the western part of the state last summer, Cochran and STAR Director Julia Kruse went to Asheville, North Carolina, in August 2025 to explore opportunities to work with nonprofits involved with Hurricane Helene relief.

In a coffee shop, they happened to meet Lindsey Barnett, director of relief and restoration at Valley Hope Church in Swannanoa, North Carolina. Barnett was with others who have been meeting weekly to discuss their experiences and efforts since Helene devastated the area in 2024.

Barnett’s church has been providing meals, supporting small businesses and rebuilding homes. But they noticed a glaring need: affordable housing, specifically rentals. A STAR partnership felt like the perfect fit.

“I’ve worked with many volunteer organizations, but I had no idea how to close that gap,” says Barnett. “This was really critical for us. It was exciting to work with these students who have this kind of talent and time that could help to bridge that gap in information, knowledge and research to help to set us up with a solid foundation and actually do this well. The STAR team played a pivotal role in the future of our organization and our response for the community.”

In addition to Valley Hope Church, STAR students worked with organizations like Asheville’s Unified River Arts District and the Biltmore Village Merchants Association, as well as those closer to home like UNC Procurement.

Promoting apprenticeships

For MSM students Andres Balbuena (MSM ’26) and Sarah Eichler (MSM ’26), STAR’s real-world experience was invaluable. They worked with myFutureNC and ApprenticeshipNC to build a stronger business case for apprenticeships and increase employer participation statewide.

As part of their research, Eichler and another teammate visited Sanford, North Carolina, and met with apprentices at a manufacturing plant.

“It was great to see the impact that apprenticeships have been making firsthand in North Carolina,” says Eichler. “We also met with people running apprenticeship programs at various community colleges, which was key to helping us better understand the problem we were trying to solve.”

Balbuena appreciated how the STAR program is “designed to show you all the different parts of business.”

“The team structure allows you to see where your strengths are, and we can then apply everything we’ve learned in our courses to this project,” he says. “It’s helped me realize where I might want to fit within a team if I was working in a real company.”

As the MSM program plans to welcome its second cohort in August, the STAR team invites Carolina alumni and organizations across the state to send an email to connect about partnership opportunities.

Written by Kristen Grant, University Communications and Marketing