Since 4 years I am now lecturing Project and Change Management at the University Ludwigshafen. And as I am convinced that learning happens in the best case by doing something in reality I ask the students to conduct a „real“ project as a project team - and not creating a concept only.
In most cases the projects own a social character. Enclosed a shortlist with projects conducted:
- collecting money for the orphanage in Mannheim for buying new chairs
- collecting goods & money for the women in need organization in Ludwigshafen - and internal article
- organizing a healthy food day at school Ludwigshafen
- collecting money for the Sterntaler children hospice
- organizing an outdoor play day for kids in Speyer and Nachbarschaftshaus in Mannheim
- organizing a magician show at the children´s hospital in Heidelberg
- conducting a clothes collection for charity purpose
- organizing an afternoon at an elderly home with games / or carnival and fun or even a trip to the zoo
- children´s olympic games
- get together for diversity project and documentation
- and many more!
By conducting a real project 2 things happen: people learn a lot about themselves and especially with regard to their emotions as they need to overcome some challenges they did not expect - like how to ask for sponsoring a project or dealing with people outside their age level. And by doing so growing takes place at the same time.
I am regularly amazed by the creativity and the resourcefulness the students show when finishing their projects. Especially, the lessons learned they gathered sound so familiar to me - it is very similar to doing a project in business environment: it is about communication, transparency and handling emotions. In addition they can talk abut the real project experience as soon as they apply for a job after university - and consequently they learn for life.