Learning is going beyond note-taking, studying and exams for students in one management leadership class at the University this semester.

Assistant professor Laura Little gave students in her MGMT 5980 course one semester to plan and execute a project benefitting a non-profit organization.

Five students – Kumarie Oudi, Jessica Zubrod, Sara Ijaz, Anne Elliot and Malisha Mendis – decided to make a difference for the dogs and cats at the Oconee County Animal Shelter.

“You have to set a goal, somehow measure it and reach it,” said Oudi, a senior management major from Lawrenceville. “It’s not enough just to raise awareness – we have to quantify it.”

Oudi said her group was particularly motivated by the shelter’s high euthanization rate.

“A lot of the animals will be put to sleep,” she said. “The shelter is always at capacity, and there just aren’t enough adoptions.”

First, the group committed to volunteering at the shelter a minimum of once every other week.

The members then made posters and positioned them around campus and the Athens community to raise awareness about the Oconee Animal Shelter.

Their goal was to heighten public consciousness about the shelter’s lack of supplies and the overabundance of animals needing homes.

As part of the project, the group petitioned local businesses for funds to help the shelter buy supplies and keep additional animals on-site.

All five members said working on the project has helped them learn how to apply leadership principles they learn in the classroom to real world problems.

“Delegation is major,” said Zubrod, a senior management major from Locust Grove.

“It’s a big project, and Dr. Little gave us no boundaries – we had to design the project ourselves,” Zubrod said. “So we all took on specific roles, and I ended up being the primary contact with the shelter to communicate our plans, and I learned a lot that way. But overall, we all work well together as a team.”

Ijaz, a senior business management major from Ebony, Va., said she learned more than leadership skills through the project – she also confronted a lifelong fear of dogs.

“I had a really bad experience a few years back, and I just became terrified,” she said.

“I went to the shelter, though, and it was a good experience because I learned to step up and face my fears.”

The group said the most important part of the project is helping the animals at the shelter.

“One thing the animal shelter director told me that really stuck with me is that we’re helping those who can’t speak for themselves,” Zubrod said.