Through Rutgers Master of Business and Science (MBS) Externship Exchange program, students are matched to corporate-sponsored small projects in teams ranging in size from two to nine students each semester. Far from "problem + ingenuity = solution" simplistic, the MBS Externship Exchange, which continues to grow exponentially, is a great success story.
Led by Christie Nelson, Ph.D., since its 2017 inception, the Externship Exchange initially consisted of one advisor (Nelson), four students, one project, and one partner organization. Five years later, the program accommodates more than 170 graduate and undergraduate students each semester, and is supported by more than 15 adjunct faculty members and nearly a dozen student workers.
Open to all MBS students, the Externship Exchange is an excellent way for students to gain hands-on experience in their intended careers or investigate a different career path altogether. With projects completed through multidisciplinary teamwork, students not only discover solutions via collective and disparate perspectives, but which is an accurate reflection of the real-world move toward a multidisciplinary problem-solving approach.
As they take projects from start to finish, teams are directed by both an MBS academic advisor and a company mentor from the organization to which they have been assigned. Students also attend structured, intensive professional-development workshops—a hallmark of the MBS program—throughout the semester.
This unique opportunity allows students to gain practical, hands-on work experience at some of the world’s leading corporations while also receiving specialized instruction on topics including leadership, teamwork, problem-solving, and giving effective presentations—such as the semester-end “Lightning Talks” given on April 26, 2022, and May 3, 2022, respectively, where students discussed how they used their problem-solving skills to work on non-hypothetical, complex projects for a star-studded lineup of companies both big and small across a range of industries, including:
April 26th Teams:
- Nested Knowledge
- Cumberland County Authority (NJBDA)
- Church and Dwight
- ECPAT USA Albany
- ECPAT USA Albuquerque
- Fidelis Pharmaceutical: Grant Research
- Fidelis Survey
- Sytheon Healthy Dyed Hair Project
- SMART MS3
- Wandrer.earth
- Decomil LLC
- PSEG Vehicle To Grid
- PSEG Offshore Wind
- Six Thirty Ventures
- NJCCIC CTR Project
- New Wilmington, PA
- COVID
- Wall Street Boot Camp
May 3rd Teams:
- Rutgers Recreation
- Colgate - Sustainability
- Colgate-Regulatory
- CINA
- Collaborative Solutions LLC (Texas Group)
- Collaborative Solutions Team 2 (CA)
- ECPAT USA - UXD
- ECPAT Data Science
- MissionCleanWater
- Brown-Webster
- U-Haul Demand Forecasting
- Bentley Labs Project
- Ingredion 1: Supply Chain
- Ingredion 2: Emissions Training
- Jana Lerbach Wellness
- La Casita Hot Sauce
The MBS Externship Exchange opportunity is open to students during the fall, spring, and summer semesters. For students or companies interested in the program, please contact Dr. Nelson at cnelson@dimacs.rutgers.edu.