The course provides valuable service not only for community agencies and groups but also for a wide range of Purdue departments, both academic and non-academic. It gives students the opportunity to do work with a professional client and to create a graphics projects according to the client s specifications. In TG 413 students spend the opening weeks of the semester discussing small-business needs. Other topics include consideration of professional identity, business forms, preparation of proposals, and budgeting. The students are assigned to a group to work with a client on a project to be completed within the semester.
Assignment is responsive to student interests, but is done by the instructor.
Students are required to appear professional in dress and all other aspects in their dealings with clients. Since they cannot pass the course, and hence cannot graduate, until the project is completed satisfactorily, students have an incentive to think carefully about what they can promise and deliver. Potential projects are vetted by Professor Sadowski prior to the start of the semester. It is important that the prospective clients have well-defined projects that can be completed in about ten weeks, have the funds to finance the project, and fulfill their end of the bargain in terms of meeting with the students and attending the final presentation by the group. Professor Sadowski reports that most clients have been good at meeting these requirements, and that there is a growing group of satisfied customers.