Reaching out to a community and spreading awareness about the work they do is vital for any non-profit or small business, and effective marketing is the key. Whether it is advertising a service or showing what has been achieved, marketing can bring the work of the community to the forefront.
Kimberly Land, an Instructor in Marketing for USC Upstate, shows students the importance of marketing through her integration of service-learning into her courses. With service-learning, students develop knowledge and skills through traditional course activities, then apply that knowledge in projects that serve a community need. In both Land’s Marketing Communications course (MKTG U352) and her Marketing Management course (MKTG U458), students are assigned a semester-long project to develop marketing campaigns for organizations that partner with the class.
As of Spring 2025, Land’s courses have completed 87 of these projects.
After working as a marketing professional herself for about 17 years, instructor Land made connections that she now uses to connect her students to organizations that provide them with real world experience. Her first class projects predated most other service-learning courses on campus.
“That first semester that I taught marketing communications, it was really great. It was great for the business, it was great for the students. And so I thought, hey, we need to continue this. And that was 10 years ago.”
Kimberly Land
Land’s courses bring new community partners for the students to work with every semester. These small businesses and nonprofit organizations all have their own reasons for connecting with USC Upstate marketing students. Some seek help setting marketing objectives, getting more traffic or volunteers, or growing their social media presence.
The students in these courses have found great success in these projects. For two small businesses, Eyes on Henry and Jordan Creek Candle Company, putting the students’ concepts and ideas into practice led to increased traffic to their businesses. Jordan Creek Candle Company even hired one student at the end of the course.
For students, the class projects can be time-consuming and intensive, but being able to do meaningful work that directly impacts an organization is worth it. The projects give students authentic client scenarios to work with and professional experience they can carry with them in their careers.
In thinking about the lessons she and her students have learned from their community-based projects, Land offered this advice to students considering courses like hers, “Don’t be afraid of the hard things sometimes, because they can teach you the most and give you takeaways that are going to be useful to you in a interview situation, in a future job, and in life.”