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• Students at Maine Business School create research-backed solutions for regional employers in areas such as recruitment, sustainability, and workforce development.
• These locally focused learning experiences foster professional growth and career readiness through real-time feedback and direct interaction with industry leaders.
• Faculty coaching, industry mentorship, and cross-team collaboration help students sharpen their leadership, communication, and critical thinking skills in real business contexts.

Business schools are increasingly challenged to deliver high-impact learning that both prepares students for the real world and meets the needs of local economies. A cohort-based learning lab model at Maine Business School (MBS) at the University of Maine in Orono is doing just that—connecting undergraduate business students with major employers in the state to tackle meaningful, real-world business challenges.

Since 2021, the university has augmented its curriculum with  (RLEs) for first-year students and Advanced RLEs (ARLEs) for second-year and upper-level students. These offerings are part of  Student Success and Retention, an initiative supported by a multiyear 320 million USD investment in the University of Maine System by the Harold Alfond Foundation.

The faculty and industry experts at MBS know that building relationships through programs such as the RLEs are good not only for students, but for the entire state. To deliver this programming, MBS partners with organizations such as Northern Light Health, an integrated healthcare system; Bath Iron Works, a full-service shipyard and subsidiary of General Dynamics; and Wyman’s Blueberries. This coming fall, the program will expand to include a new partnership with regional coffeehouse chain Aroma Joe’s.

For each RLE project, students engage directly with executives and data, applying classroom theory to issues such as workforce development, operations strategy, and product innovation. The structure of these projects is based on what Buffie McCue-Quinn, who leads the RLE model, calls industry-embedded learning. That term describes a deeply immersive experience in which students work alongside organizational leaders and internal stakeholders to address current, real-world challenges, says McCue-Quinn, also a co-author of this article.

Unlike case-based instruction or simulations, this model requires sustained relationship-building, thoughtful project calibration, and continuous faculty mentorship. RLEs and ARLEs are about more than applying theory; they prepare students to navigate ambiguity, think across disciplines, synthesize research into actionable insights, and communicate strategic recommendations with clarity and impact.

How It Works

Each RLE and ARLE cohort is capped at 24 students so that faculty can provide individualized instruction and facilitate sustained interaction with organizational partners. Students work in five- to seven-person teams to balance collaborative efficiency and individual accountability.  suggests that forming teams in this size range fosters optimal group performance in complex, applied settings.

Although each team is assigned a distinct organizational challenge, students also learn a great deal through intergroup exchanges that occur during classwide discussions, interim presentations, and peer review checkpoints that are built into the course timeline. As students investigate related problems from different vantage points, they frequently identify natural points of connection between their areas of inquiry.

Students are encouraged to share resources, test ideas across groups, and view their work not in isolation but as part of a broader ecosystem of innovation. This cross-pollination of research, frameworks, and strategic thinking fosters deeper analysis, strengthens final deliverables, and reflects the interdisciplinary collaboration typical of problem-solving in organizational contexts. Such exchanges contribute to a richer collective understanding and deepen the analytical rigor of students’ final recommendations. 

For example, in a recent iteration of the course, one team explored ways to extract essential oils from blueberry by-product, while another investigated product concepts such as candles and lip balm. As their research progressed, the teams identified a shared opportunity to incorporate essential oil extraction into the product design process, enhancing both the feasibility and value proposition of their recommendations to their respective organizational partners.

Throughout the semester, project leads in the partnering organizations serve as mentors who offer guidance, respond to student inquiries, and facilitate access to internal stakeholders as needed. These mentors support the research and development of informed, contextually grounded recommendations.

Students primarily engage with business leaders during the on-site launch, mid-course check-ins, and final presentations. In some cases, organizations send guest speakers to campus to provide industry-specific insights. While these professionals do not formally evaluate students while they are on campus, they often offer students real-time feedback and ask questions during team presentations. 

Over the course of the semester, students typically participate in two site visits, where they have access to organizational leaders and gain an understanding of the partner’s operations. Students then conduct most of their research and collaborative analysis on campus in structured team environments.

The course culminates in each team making a formal presentation to the partner organization’s leadership team, giving students opportunities to deliver well-reasoned, evidence-informed recommendations while refining their professional communication and critical thinking skills.

An Emphasis on Faculty-Guided Leadership

McCue-Quinn currently teaches the ARLE course, drawing on her expertise in leadership consulting, immersive curriculum design, and the development of industry-embedded learning models. The course’s design is also informed by McCue-Quinn’s research in leadership development and pedagogical innovation.

The curriculum is based on a distinctive blend of external partnership cultivation, project calibration, and advanced student coaching. This approach ensures students are challenged by real-world complexity while receiving the support necessary to navigate ambiguity, stakeholder dynamics, and professional communication.

One of the program’s foundational principles is faculty-guided leadership development. In practice, this means that students participate in individual and team-based activities designed to build self-awareness, improve team dynamics, and foster professional growth.

Leadership assessments, reflective exercises, and structured feedback loops support this development throughout the semester. The goal is to accelerate each student’s capacity to lead effectively in multifaceted, interdisciplinary environments.

Sustained by Industry Commitment

Currently, there is no additional fee for students enrolled in the course. The cost of all associated travel and meals is covered by UMS TRANSFORMS funds, which are allocated in alignment with systemwide strategic goals. Faculty submit project plans and budgets in advance of each course offering to secure funding. This ensures equitable access for all students, regardless of financial background.

Although direct program costs are relatively modest, the instructional and relational commitments are substantial and essential to the course’s effectiveness. At its core, the course is built on sustained industry partnerships, intentional project design, and faculty-guided leadership development.

“Successful execution of this program requires thoughtful planning,” says Jason Harkins, executive dean of the Maine Business School. “Business programs considering this approach must consider the time required to cultivate external partnerships, the scope of projects students can successfully complete, and the support students need in their development throughout the semester. Faculty experience in consulting, industry collaboration, or applied project management further enhances the instructional depth and credibility of the model.”

The Right Portfolio of Projects

The business school typically cultivates its partnerships with organizations for the program through their pre-existing relationships with the university, as well as through institutional alumni and organizational leaders who have become aware of the course and express interest in future collaboration. The establishment of these partnerships often unfolds over one to two years and involves extensive pre-course collaboration.

Effective project calibration is essential: Challenges that are overly ambitious can lead to student stagnation, while those that are too narrowly defined risk disengagement. Therefore, our early-stage conversations with partners focus on aligning institutional goals with organizational priorities, negotiating access parameters, and collaboratively defining a portfolio of projects that are rigorous, pedagogically appropriate, and strategically relevant.

Additionally, projects are scoped through a collaborative process between faculty and partner organizations to ensure that challenges both require sustained inquiry and are feasible to complete within a single semester. The objective is to identify a set of complex yet tractable problems that will allow students to apply their critical thinking, research, and communication skills in meaningful ways. 

Impact and Outcomes

So far, students have undertaken a diverse set of partner-defined challenges across multiple sectors:

• At Northern Light Health, student teams investigated strategies to enhance recruitment pathways for full-time, permanent nursing roles in response to evolving workforce demands.
• At Bath Iron Works, students examined long-term workforce development priorities and proposed approaches to mitigate regional housing constraints that affect labor availability.
• In collaboration with Wyman’s, students created product concepts utilizing residual materials from blueberry juicing, with a focus on sustainability, resource optimization, and market viability.

For participating organizations, this class functions as an early engagement strategy within the undergraduate talent pipeline. In some cases, students have been invited to apply or interview for internships and full-time roles, reflecting the potential for reciprocal value and long-term talent cultivation. 

For students, the benefits are equally impactful. “These are the best classes the Maine Business School offers,” says Lucas Ronco, who has participated in all three ARLE courses, first as a student and then as a teaching assistant. “These courses challenge students in ways a traditional lecture doesn’t. I feel like the suggestions my teams have offered these business leaders have all been taken seriously. It’s an exceptionally meaningful experience.”

Other students consistently point to the distinctiveness of the learning experience in their evaluations. In their feedback, they highlight the opportunities to navigate ambiguity, address challenges without predetermined solutions, resolve team dynamics, and engage in applied research, all while building their confidence and communication skills. They appreciate that they are presenting to senior organizational leaders rather than only to faculty or peers.

The university continues to explore ways to expand access to RLE and ARLE opportunities, including developing new interdisciplinary collaborations and tracking long-term student outcomes. While formal career tracking is still evolving, positive qualitative feedback and repeat enrollment in the course indicate that these experiences have strong perceived value among students.