Leave it to our CAFÉ team to make being in class cool again.

CAFÉ team members Wayne Davis, senior brand director; Courtnay Greenberg, senior brand manager; and Lesley Ho, commercial development program associate, collaborated for the fifth year in a row with Louisville Collegiate School instructor Greg Geis and his Entrepreneurial Problem-Solving Class. 

This unique collaboration aimed to engage local students and get them excited about working on real-world projects.

This year's project, facilitated by GE Appliances' VP of Contract Sales, Dan Goldstein, focused on our CAFÉ brand and challenged the students over the four-week period to ideate ways that the brand could further connect to its target audience, the Style Stewards. 

Intended to encourage creative and strategic thinking, the students were asked to develop a way the brand could grow awareness and connect to the Style Stewards on an emotional level. 

To develop and present their proposed solution, they leaned on the curriculum from the fall semester, as well as the background and insights provided by the brand team.

"The students came up with some great ideas and had engaging presentations," Davis said. "Most recommendations focused on social media or online presence. We've vetted their recommendations and will work with our digital team to find ways to test and learn many of the ideas."

During final presentations, students presented their slides and participated in Q&A with GEA leadership, receiving invaluable professional feedback.

"This project lifts them out of the ordinary academic routine and gives them a lot of creative freedom," Geis said. "It also lets them flex their 'synthesis' muscles, bringing together research, writing, public speaking, design and other skills."

The CAFÉ team will connect with others to pursue expanding our engagement with more local students. By engaging with more local schools, we can provide students in the local community with real world project experience, and they can provide fresh perspectives, which can be potentially incorporated into our strategies.

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