Sales is nothing without practice, according to Thompson Rivers University (TRU) sessional instructor Sheena van Dyk, who reached out to partner with Volunteer Kamloops to help her students complete a community-service learning assignment for their professional-selling course.
As a result, Volunteer Kamloops board members Bobbie Kalsi, Sarah Ladd, Sean Simpson and Karen Squibb, committed more than 40 hours in October to allow 44 third-year TRU business students gain experience practising the skills they are learning in the classroom.
In three weeks, the students collectively helped raise $3,200 in October, fundraising and campaigning with a bottle drive, telemarketing campaign and in-person meetings with local businesses for in-kind donations.
The funds will help Volunteer Kamloops run existing programs and expand new initiatives including a youth program and a stress-management workshop for volunteer leaders.
The partnership involved individual mentoring and skill-building for the students.
Van Dyk said she was impressed with the dedication to helping the students learn the practical application of their studies.
Student satisfaction with the assignment was also high.
“I think the assignment was a valuable experience that I can add to my resume,” said student Lance Tran.
“It was a great pleasure and I learned I need more practise in order to succeed in this field.”
Several of the international students involved noted that, as a result of the project, they connected to the greater Kamloops community; an outcome that excited Ladd, who joined Kalsi to lead this project in the hopes it would tie in nicely with the Culturally Welcoming program she’s taking on at Volunteer Kamloops.
Each student involved had something special to offer, as well.
One student withlanguage difficulties met with Kalsi, who helped direct her to target her sales efforts at businesses related to her own cultural background.
This philosophy resonates with the core idea at Volunteer Kamloops: There is a volunteer opportunity for everyone regardless of his or her level of ability or time commitment.
Volunteer Kamloops’ Link and FOCUS programs connect Kamloops citizens to volunteering with more than 80 different local non-profit organizations.
To learn more about Volunteer Kamloops, go online to volunteerkamloops.org.
To learn more about service learning and student engagement at TRU, go online to tru.ca/ctl.html.
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